Numerical Study on the Collapse of the Morandi Bridge

Abstract

An innovative discontinuum-based micromodeling approach, the Applied Element Method, is used in this work to investigate explicitly potential failure mechanisms that might have contributed to the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy, which occurred on August 14, 2018. While, consistently with the findings presented in a previous contribution by the same authors, the initial trigger of the collapse mechanism was assumed as the release of one of the stays, this study investigates, through a sensitivity study, the impact that several parameters and epistemic uncertainties, including reduction of cables’ cross section (potentially induced by corrosion) and various possible configurations of both passive and active reinforcements in the main deck, have on the predicted failure mode. Then, to indicate the structural elements and details in which a potential presence of corrosion should be more carefully explored, the observed debris distribution is compared with its numerical counterparts.