Experimental and Analytical Investigation of Grouted Splice Sleeve Connections for Precast Bridge Substructures in Seismic Regions

Abstract eng:
Connections between precast substructure elements must withstand significant stresses and deformations in earthquakes. Grouted splice sleeve connectors offer good construction tolerances and are considered for prefabricated bridges in seismic regions using accelerated bridge construction. In this research, grouted splice sleeve connectors were used in various configurations to connect half-scale precast bridge columns to footings. The quasi-static cyclic experiments consisted of two precast and one cast-in-place column-to-footing subassemblies. For the first precast specimen the grouted splice sleeve connectors were located in the footing. For the second precast specimen the connectors were placed inside the column end, and reinforcing bars were debonded from concrete in the footing. Experimental results show that a more ductile performance was achieved for the second precast specimen; both precast specimens had an acceptable strength. Computational studies were conducted to simulate the response of each specimen under lateral cyclic loads. Force-based beam-column elements with fiber sections were used to construct the computational model based on plastic hinge weighted integration. The model was validated through both local and global responses with the experiments, and was subsequently used to predict the response of a prototype precast bridge bent under a suite of earthquake induced ground motions.

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