Comparative study on the seismic performance of subway stations using reinforced concrete cast-in-place columns and truncated columns

Abstract

Insufficient lateral deformability of columns within the high axial force is the main failure mechanism of subway stations under earthquake loading. This study proposed applying reinforced concrete truncated (RCT) columns to improve the seismic capacity of subway stations. The seismic tests of RCT columns and cast-in-place (CIP) columns were conducted first. Then the seismic capacity of subway stations with RCT and CIP columns was discussed by push-over analysis. After that, the seismic response of subway stations with RCT and CIP columns was simulated by considering both horizontal and vertical ground motions. Numerical results presented that the vertical performance of both structures had no obvious difference. However, the earthquake-induced horizontal deformation of the structure with RCT columns was smaller than that of the structure with CIP columns, then the structure with RCT columns experienced lighter damage. Therefore, RCT columns can be applied to improve the seismic performance of subway stations.