• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.583-594
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• 2018

Although a lot of experimental and analytical investigations have been carried out for steel bridge piers made of SS400 and SM490, the formulas available for SS400 and SM490 are not suitable for evaluating ultimate load and deformation capacities of steel bridge piers made of high strength steel (HSS) SM570. The effect of various parameters is investigated in this paper, including plate width-to-thickness ratio, column slenderness ratio and axial compression force ratio, on the ultimate load and deformation capacities of steel bridge box piers made of SM570 steel subjected to cyclic loading. The elasto-plastic behavior of the steel bridge piers under cyclic loads is simulated through plastic large deformation finite element analysis, in which a modified two-surface model (M2SM) including cyclic hardening is employed to trace the material nonlinearity. An extensive parametric study is conducted to study the influences of structural parameters on the ultimate load and deformation capacities. Based on these analytical investigations, new formulas for predicting ultimate load and deformation capacities of steel bridge piers made of SM570 are proposed. This study extends the ultimate load and deformation capacities evaluation of steel bridge piers from SS400, SM490 steels to SM570 steel, and provides some useful suggestions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.753-765
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• 2017

This paper aims to investigate the strength degradation of reinforced concrete piers wrapped with steel plates which corrode at the pier base by employing a three dimensional elasto-plastic finite element formulation. The prediction accuracy of the employed finite element analysis method is firstly verified by comparing the analytical results with test results. Then, a series of parametric studies is carried out to investigate the effects of steel plate's corrosion position along width direction, corrosion depth along plate thickness, corrosion range along width direction, and steel plate-concrete bonding degradation on the strength of the piers. It is observed that the strength degradation of the piers is closely related to steel plate's corrosion position, corrosion depth and corrosion range in the case of local corrosion on the webs. In contrast, when the base of flanges corrodes, the strength degradation of the piers is only related to steel plate's corrosion depth and corrosion range, and the influence of corrosion position on the strength degradation is very gentle. Furthermore, the strength of the piers decreases with the degradation of steel plate-concrete bonding behavior. Finally, the maximum strength of the piers obtained from numerical analysis corresponding to different bonding behavior is compared with theoretical results within an accepted error.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.69-70
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• 2009

This paper investigates the seismic behavior of prefabricated piers which are made by onsite connection of precast composite column segments to accelerate bridge construction. Quasi-static cyclic loading tests on the piers show better overall seismic capacity compared to RC piers with seismic details..

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.703-716
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• 2018

In this study, the different energy demands in reinforced concrete (RC) wall piers, coupled by buckling restrained braces (BRBs), are investigated. As well as this, a single plastic hinge approach (SPH) and an extended plastic hinge (EPH) approach is considered for the wall piers. In the SPH approach, plasticity can extend only in the 0.1H adjacent to the wall base while, in the EPH approach, the plasticity can extend anywhere in the wall. The seismic behavior of 10-, 20- and 30-storey structures, subjected to near-fault (NF) as well as far-fault (FF) earthquakes, is studied with respect to the energy concepts involved in each storey. Different kinds of energy, including inelastic, damping, kinetic, elastic and total input energy demand, are investigated. The energy contribution from the wall piers, as well as the BRBs in each model, are studied. On average, for EPH approach, the inelastic demand portion pertaining to the BRBs for NF and FF records, is more than 60 and 80%, respectively. In the SPH approach, these ratios are 77 and 90% for the NF and FF events, respectively. It appears that utilizing the BRBs as energy dissipation members between two wall piers is an efficient concept.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.871-876
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• 2001

Recent earthquakes in California and Japan caused extensive damage to highway bridge structures. It is also thought that during probable earthquakes bridge structures in Korea could be failed due to the structural deficiencies, which were nonseismically designed and constructed before 1992. In these regards, innovative strengthening methods have been developed to repair reinforced concrete bridge columns, especially by glassfiber sheet bonding methods which are widely used today. The primary objective of this research is to investigate the seismic behavior of RC bridge columns retrofitted with composite straps and to propose pertinent guidelines of repair and rehabilitation method for earthquake resistant design procedure of RC bridges which are located in low or moderate seismicity regions. Six scaled-down concrete test specimens were made with test variables such as lap splice ratio, axial force ratio, confinement ratio, composite straps in the plastic hinge region. Pertinent design guidelines could be developed for the earthquake resistant design of RC bridge piers retrofitted with glassfibers in low or moderate seismic region.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.300-307
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• 2005

Steel Reinforced Concrete (SRC) composite column has several advantage such as excellent durability, rapid construction, reduction of column section. Due to these aspect, applications of SRC columns to bridge piers are continuously increasing. For the design of relatively large SRC columns for bridge piers, it is necessary to check the current design provisions which were based on small section having higher steel ratio. In this study, seven concrete encased composite columns were fabricated and static tests were performed. Embedded steel members were a H-shape rolled beam and a partially filled steel tube. Based on the test results, the ultimate strength according to section details and local behavior were estimated. For the analysis of inelastic behavior of the SRC column, the cracked section stiffness of the columns was evaluated and compared with calculations. The stiffness of the cracked section showed that 25% of the initial value and this stiffness reduction occurred at 85% of the ultimate load in the experiments.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.453-456
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• 2003

This research is to evaluate the seismic performance of reinforced concrete bridge piers with lap-spliced longitudinal reinforcement steels in the plastic hinge region, and to develop the enhancement scheme of their seismic capacity. Six circular columns of 0.6m diameter and 1.5m height were made with two confinement steel ratios. They were damaged under series of artificial earthquakes that could be compatible in Korean peninsula. Directly after the pseudo-dynamic test, damaged columns were retested under inelastic reversal cyclic loading simultaneously under an axial load, P=$0.1f_{ck}A_{g}$, and residual seismic performance of damaged columns was evaluated. Test results show that RC bridge piers with lap-spliced longitudinal steels behaved with minor damage even under artificial earthquakes with 0.22g PGA, but failed at low ductility subjected to the subsequent quasi-static load test. This failure was due to the debonding of the lap splice. The specimens externally wrapped with composite FRP straps in the potential plastic hinge region showed significant improvement both in flexural strength and displacement ductility.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.285-295
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• 2018

In this paper, the bearing capacity of a non-eccentric and eccentric tubular, concrete-filled, steel bridge pier was studied through the finite element method. Firstly, to verify the validity of the numerical analysis, the finite element analysis of four steel tube columns with concrete in-fill was carried out under eccentric loading and horizontal cyclic loading. The analytical results were compared with experimental data. Secondly, the effects of the eccentricity of the vertical loading on the seismic performance of these eccentrically loaded steel tubular bridge piers were considered. According to the simulated results, with increasing eccentricity ratio, the bearing capacity on the eccentric side of a steel tubular bridge pier (with concrete in-fill) is greatly reduced, while the capacity on the opposite side is improved. Moreover, an empirical formula was proposed to describe the bearing capacity of such bridge piers under non-eccentric and eccentric load. This will provide theoretical evidence for the seismic design of the eccentrically loaded steel tubular bridge piers with concrete in-fill.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.91-106
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• 2016

Two-dimensional elastoplastic finite element formulation is employed to investigate the load- carrying capacity degradation of reinforced concrete piers wrapped with steel plates due to occurrence of corrosion at the pier base. By comparing with experimental results, the employed finite element analysis method is verified to be accurate. After that, a series of parametric studies are conducted to investigate the effect of corrosion ratio and corrosion mode of steel plates located near the base of in-service pier P2 on load-carrying capacity of the piers. It is observed that the load-carrying capacity of the piers decreases with the increase in corrosion ratio of steel plates. There exists an obvious linear relationship between the load-carrying capacity and the corrosion ratio in the case of even corrosion mode. The degradation of load-carrying capacity resulted from the web's uneven corrosion mode is more serious than that under even corrosion mode, and the former case is more liable to occur than the latter case in actual engineering application. Finally, the failure modes of the piers under different corrosion state are discussed. It is found that the principal tensile strain of concrete and yield range of steel plates are distributed within a wide range in the case of slight corrosion, and they are concentrated on the column base when complete corrosion occurs. The findings obtained from the present study can provide a useful reference for the maintenance and strengthening of the in-service piers.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.931-951
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• 2015

To improve the durability and service life of reinforced concrete column such as bridge piers, an advanced composite column made of Ultra High Performance Cementitious Composites (UHPCC) permanent form is proposed. Based on elasticity plasticity theory, axial compression behavior of the composite column was studied theoretically. The first circumferential cracking load and ultimate limit loading capacity are derived for the composite column. Short composite column compression tests and numerical simulations using FEM method were carried out to justify the theoretical formula. The effects of UHPCC tube thickness on the axial compression behavior were studied. Using the established theoretical model and numerical simulation, the large dimension composite columns are calculated and analyzed with different UHPCC tube thickness. These studies may provide a reference for advanced composite column design and application.