SEISMIC BEHAVIOUR OF POORLY DETAILED RC BRIDGE PIERS WITH HOLLOW CROSS-SECTION

Abstract eng:
The assessment of seismic performance of existing bridge structures is a primary issue, especially in regions where most of bridges have been realized without proper details to support loadings due to earthquakes. Hollow section piers are a very common structural solution for reinforced concrete (RC) bridge structures, due to the economical convenience and the higher structural efficiency with respect to solid sections. Nevertheless, a quite limited number of experimental tests are present in literature about this structural typology. An experimental program of cyclic tests on four 1:4-scale models of typical RC existing bridge piers with hollow rectangular cross-section, poor structural detailing and small web thickness, has been carried out at the Department of Structures for Engineering and Architecture of the University of Naples Federico II. Different failure modes have been observed: flexure and flexure-shear, basically depending on the specimens’ slenderness. In this paper, major experimental results are described and discussed, also evaluating the deformability contributions to the overall applied displacement and highlighting the importance of shear deformation. Finally, numerical simulation analyses of the structural response of the tested piers have been performed in OpenSees in order to reproduce the above-mentioned deformability contributions by simulations. Main numerical-versus-experimental results are shown and discussed.

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