Seismic performance of a rocking bridge pier substructure with frictional hinge dampers

The rocking pier system (RPS) allows the columns to rock on beam or foundation surfaces during the attacks of a strong earthquake. Literatures have proved that seismic energy dissipated by the RPS through the column impact is limited. To enhance the energy dissipation capacity of a RPS bridge substructure, frictional hinge dampers (FHDs) were installed and evaluated by shaking table tests. The supplemental FHDs consist of two brass plates sandwiched by three steel plates. The strategy of self-centering design is to isolate the seismic energy by RPS at the columns and then dissipate the energy by FHDs at the bridge deck. Component tests of FHD were first conducted to verify the friction coefficient and dynamic characteristic of the FHDs. In total, 32 shaking table tests were conducted to investigate parameters such as wave forms of the earthquake (El Centro 1940 and Kobe 1995) and normal forces applied on the friction dampers. An analytical model was also proposed to compare with the tested damping of the bridge sub-structure with or without FHDs.