ANALYTICAL ASSESSMENT OF SEISMIC RESPONSE OF A NEW GENERATION OF BRIDGE PIERS WITH PIPE PIN CONNECTIONS

Abstract eng:
Bridges with integral superstructures incorporate rigid connections between the superstructure and substructure. However, hinge or “pin” connections may be used in these bridges at column bases to join the columns to pile-shafts or footings to reduce the moment transfer and save on the cost of foundation. Even though pipe pins offer many advantages in bridge construction, the development and evaluation of earthquake-resistant pipe details have been lacking until recently. An experimental and analytical study was undertaken to develop plausible pipe pin connections for column pile-shaft connections and assess their seismic performance. The connection details were such that they could be adopted in cast-in-place or precast bridge construction, with the latter aimed at utilization in accelerated bridge construction (ABC). The study also included pocket connections between columns and cap beams. The experimental portion of the study was conducted on a shake table at the Earthquake Engineering Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno including a1/3.75 scale, two-column bents subjected to seismic loadings. The analytical studies consisted of: (1) simple stick models for the pin connections that were developed for the bents as design tools, (2) nonlinear finite element (FE) models for the pin connections in OpenSEES that can be utilized for global analysis of bridges with pin connections, and (3) elaborate nonlinear FE models of the bent with pipe-pins using ABAQUS to investigate the microscopic performance and interactions of the components. The analytical results were evaluated based on their correlation with experimental data and the models were subsequently used in parametric studies to address the gaps in the experimental results and provide more insight into the pin seismic behavior under various conditions. The presentation will provide an overview of shake table studies before providing the highlights of the modeling methods and findings from the analytical assessment of the piers and connections.

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