Experimental investigations on seismic responses of RC circular column piers in curved bridges

Abstract

The collapses of curved bridges are mainly caused by the damaged columns, subjected to the combined loadings of axial load, shear force, flexural moment and torsional moment, under earthquakes. However, these combined loadings have not been fully investigated. This paper firstly investigated the mechanical characteristics of the bending-torsion coupling effects, based on the seismic response spectrum analysis of 24 curved bridge models. And then 9 reinforced concrete (RC) and circular column specimens were tested, by changing the bending-tortion ratio (M/T), axial compression ratio, longitudinal reinforcement ratio and spiral reinforcement ratio, respectively. The results show that the bending-torsion coupling effects of piers are more significant, along with the decrease of girder curvature and the increase of pier height. The M/T ratio ranges from 6 to 15 for common cases, and influences the crack distribution, plastic zone and hysteretic curve of piers. And these seismic characteristics are also influenced by the compression ratio, longitudinal reinforcement ratio and spiral reinforcement ratios of piers.