Seismic interaction of flexural ductility and shear capacity in reinforced concrete columns

Abstract

The seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge columns is a significant issue because the interaction of flexural ductility and shear capacity of such columns with varied amounts of lateral reinforcement is not well established. Several relationships between flexural ductility and shear capacity have been proposed by various researchers in the past. In this paper, a parametric study on RC bridge columns is conducted using a nonlinear finite element program, "Simulation of Concrete Structures (SCS)", developed at the University of Houston. SCS has been previously used to predict the seismic behavior of such columns. The predicted results were compared with the test results obtained from experiments available in literature. Based on the results of the parametric study performed in this paper, a set of new relationships between flexural ductility and shear capacity of RC columns is proposed for seismic design.