Shaking table test of a novel railway bridge pier with replaceable components

Abstract

Replaceable components can be used to avoid severe damage of bridge pier in earthquake or to achieve rapid replacement if damaged after earthquake. This study proposed a novel railway bridge pier with concrete columns as main component and steel truss connection system as replaceable component. Shaking table tests with 1/10-scaled models were carried out to investigate the seismic performance of the novel railway bridge pier. The acceleration response, displacement and strain of the bridge pier under three input seismic waves were analyzed, and thus the seismic weak part of the bridge pier was determined. Test results showed that the main component (concrete column) and replaceable components (connection system) work well together under lower seismic intensity (small PGAs). Besides, the replaceable components can dissipate seismic energy, and then the main components are protected from severe damage under higher seismic intensity (large PGAs). It is found that steel connection systems (replaceable components) at the upper part of the bridge pier exhibit larger strain during testing, of which the diagonal web members is the weak part during earthquakes. Therefore, the web members of connection system can be designed to dissipate energy in earthquakes. It can be predicted that the main components in this novel bridge pier will be protected and suffer no severe damages during earthquakes. Thus, the novel bridge pier can be promoted to use for railway bridges in earthquake-prone regions.