Solution approach:

The elastomeric bearing was cut up to find the cause and a 3D FE model was created to account for the imperfection due to a manufacturing defect. A direct comparison of the values of the nominal and actual geometry calculated using FE analysis was then carried out and, in particular, the areas of local bulging were evaluated in detail.

Results:

The evaluation of the bulges showed that deviations in the manufacturing process of bridge bearings according to EN 1337-3 are uncritical for this case and the bearing is suitable for operational use. We were thus able to avoid the comparatively expensive replacement of other bearings with the same production defect.