This paper describes the state-of-the art research activities on seismic isolation systems for improving the seismic capacities of the bridges in Korea. Though Korea is located in a region of low-to-moderate seismicity, the construction of seismic isolation systems has increased rapidly. The application of seismic isolation system has become popular worldwide because of its stable behavior and economical construction especially for bridge structures. Since optimal reliability level of isolated bridges can be determined as the one that provides the highest net life-cycle benefit to society, or the minimum Life-Cycle Cost (LCC), an optimal design procedure based on minimum LCC concept is more expedient for the design of seismically isolated bridges in areas of low-to-moderate seismicty. To verify the adequacy of the new design concept based on the LCC minimization, experimental studies on seismically isolated bridge are introduced as well, which include pseudo-dynamic test of scaled pier and dynamic field test of full-scale. With the application of seismic isolation systems, many kinds of dampers to improve the seismic capacity of structure are also applied not only to new bridges but also to existing bridges.

Overloaded vehicles can cause damage to structures like bridges and road pavement, which amy subsequently cause serious accidents due to the breakage. The smart bearings suggested to control overloaded vehicles can be used to obtain various information about the crossing vehicles. This paper intends to check the possibility to measure traffic loads using smart bearings.

This study presents the concept of a multi-functional Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) using piezocomposite element as damping component. This new type of TMD intends to exploit the unused energy produced by the traffic-induced vibrations of the bridge structure for the generation of electric power while fulfilling its natural role of reducing undesirable vibrations in the structure. Since the proposed TMD is still in a development stage, this paper summarizes the concept underlying the mechanism of the TMD.