Lateral Cyclic Response of RC Bridge Piers Made of Recycled Concrete: Experimental Study

Abstract

Using recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) in construction reduces the negative environmental impacts that are associated with new concrete production. However, few studies have investigated the structural performance of bridge piers made of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC), which utilizes RCA as coarse aggregate. This paper experimentally investigated the seismic performance of RAC bridge piers. Here, three 1/3-scaled bridge piers having three levels of RCA replacement ratios (0%, 50%, and 100%) were tested. The piers represented a real bridge pier located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Their seismic performances were evaluated using a quasi-static cyclic loading protocol in the form of hysteresis behavior, strain response, moment–curvature response, energy dissipation, residual deformation, ductility measures, plastic hinge length, and failure modes. The results showed that the RAC piers had similar hysteresis and strain response behavior when compared to the conventional concrete specimen. The ductility measures for the three specimens were very close in terms of curvature and displacement ductility. Moreover, RAC specimens had slightly larger plastic hinge length, experiencing more cracks compared to the control specimen. These findings highlighted the feasibility of using RCA as a replacement of coarse aggregate in bridge piers in seismic regions.