Abstract
Past experience and recent research indicates that proper modeling of abutments and foundations is very important in the evaluation of dynamic response of an overall bridge structure. This paper presents simplified procedures with accompanying design charts for the development of stiffness coefficients for abutments, piles and spread footing foundations for highway bridges. The presented procedures have been calibrated to design practice adopted by bridge engineers. Several examples are presented in the paper to highlight various sensitivity issues in abutment and foundation design. This paper appearsin transportation research record no. 1290, Third bridge engineering conference, march 10-13, 1991, denver, colorado, volume 2.