Quasi-static test of the lattice-type railway bridge pier with replaceable connection component

Abstract

Replaceable components are beneficial to functionality rapid restoration of structures after earthquakes, which is a good option for seismic design of resilient bridges. In this study, a lattice-type bridge pier with replaceable connection component was proposed for railway bridges. Large initial stiffness was provided by using steel truss connection system as replaceable connection component between two concrete columns. A 1/12-scaled bridge pier model was designed and fabricated to investigate its cyclic responses by quasi-static testing. It was proved that the replaceable connection component can be easily assembled between concrete columns and work well together with them. During testing, cracks occurred at the concrete columns and crack zone extended with the increase of loading displacement. At the later loading stage, some of steel rods of the connection component between the concrete columns began to yield, the hysteretic loop of the bridge pier showed obvious pinching effect. However, concrete columns were prevented to be severely damaged due to the sacrifice of replaceable connection components. There were differences in the strain distribution of the replaceable connection component and not all the replaceable components yielded during testing. Thus, steel rods with varied strength should be used in replaceable components for the lattice-type railway bridge pier. Otherwise, it should balance the stiffness and ductile in seismic design for the lattice-type railway bridge pier with replaceable connection component.