Seismic Design and Performance of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Column - Enlarged Pile Shaft Connections

Abstract eng:
This paper presents results of an experimental and analytical investigation conducted at the University of California, San Diego to improve the seismic design of column-enlarged pile shaft connections. Four full-scale column-shaft assemblies were tested under quasi-static cyclic lateral loading to study the minimum embedment length required for column reinforcement extended into an enlarged pile shaft and the necessary transverse reinforcement in the bar anchorage zone of a shaft to develop the necessary anchorage capacity and minimize splitting cracks. The test specimens had different column longitudinal bar sizes, different embedment lengths of the column reinforcement inside the shafts, and different amount of transverse reinforcement in the shafts. Experimental results have been complemented by nonlinear finite element analysis performed with an analytical bond-slip model developed and implemented in Abaqus to obtain a good understanding of the cyclic bond deterioration in the longitudinal reinforcement and to determine the minimum embedment length required. Based on the experimental and analytical results, new design recommendations have been developed. These recommendations can result in a significant reduction of the embedment length as compared to current seismic design specifications of the California Department of Transportation and AASHTO.

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