Numerical Simulation of Bridge Piers' Seismic Behavior: a Blind Prediction Methodology

Abstract eng:
During mid-2010, the PEER (Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center) and NEES (George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation) institutions co-sponsored a shaking table test on a full-scale reinforced concrete bridge pier that was carried out at the UCSD Large High-Performance Outdoor Shake Table. This experimental initiative was encompassed by a worldwide blind prediction contest (Concrete Column Blind Prediction Contest – CCBPC 2010) with over 40 participant teams seeking for the best numerical simulation results. The authors of this paper have participated in that contest and managed to achieve very good results as recognized by an “Award of Excellence” by the contest judges. The tested pier was included in a 10.50m high structure, comprising a 5.50m wide footing, a pier body 7.30m high with 1.20m diameter solid circular section. A 250ton reinforced concrete block was placed on the top of the pier in order to drive inertia forces large enough to mobilize the pier capacity, under increasing intensity uniaxial ground motions derived from real earthquake records. The blind numerical analyses were performed knowing only the specimen geometry, reinforcement detailing, material characteristics and the actual ground motions recorded during the testing. In this context and, in view of the author’s participation success, the present paper mainly aims at presenting several aspects of the adopted numerical methodology (and related difficulties) which proved to yield good results, while also providing some insight regarding key problems in numerical simulations of bridge pier seismic behavior. The main numerical and experimental results are compared and a brief discussion is included concerning the reasons for mismatching of some results.

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