Abstract:Under the action of earthquake, the falling beam failure of bridge is the main form of bridge failure. It is one of the most effective measures to avoid the falling beam failure by providing the sufficient overlap length. Based on the parameter comparison and the finite element model, the calculation requirements of the overlap length stipulated in the codes of China and the United States, and the differences from the actual bridge seismic analysis results are studied. The results show that for the simple-supported bridge directly supported on the abutment, the seismic code of highway bridge on the overlap length is more suitable and economical to the design concept. The variation trends of overlap length calculated to obtain through the anti-seismic code for highway bridges and ASSHTO code are basically the same. But the overlap length specified in the anti-seismic code for highway bridges is more conservative, and the overlap length specified in ASSHTO code is more sensitive to the change of pier height. The overlap lengths stipulated in the anti-seismic code for highway bridges and ASSHTO code can basically meet the requirements of the bridges not dropping the beams under the most earthquake actions (the peak acceleration reaches 0.8g), and have the wide applicability.