Inelastic behaviour and ductility capacity of circular hollow reinforced concrete bridge piers under earthquake

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the inelastic behaviour and ductility capacity of circular hollow reinforced concrete bridge piers based on various design parameters. The ultimate strength and ductility of these bridge piers varied with the amount and arrangement of lateral reinforcement, the ratio of the inside to outside diameter of the column sections, the axial load ratio and longitudinal steel percentage. A total of eight solid and hollow circular reinforced concrete bridge piers with these design variables was tested under a constant axial load and cyclically reversed horizontal load. A computer program, the RCAHEST (reinforced concrete analysis in higher evaluation system technology), was used to predict the inelastic behaviours of circular hollow reinforced concrete bridge piers. Also, the modified lateral confining effect model was adopted and incorporated into the structural element library for RCAHEST. The proposed numerical method for the inelastic behaviour and ductility capacity of circular hollow reinforced concrete bridge piers is verified by comparing the analytical results with test data developed by the authors.