• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2001.09a
• /
• pp.194-199
• /
• 2001

Lap splice in plastic hinge region is inevitable because of due to constructional joint between footing and column. R/C Circular columns with lap-splice in plastic hinge region are widely used in Korean highway bridges. In addition, these columns which constructed before the seismic design code have a number of structural deficiencies. It is, however, believed that there are not many experimental research works for nonlinear behavior of these columns subjected to earthquake motions. The object of this research is to evaluate the seismic performance of existing circular reinforced concrete bridge piers by the Quasi-static test. Existing reinforced concrete bridge piers were moderate seismically designed in accordance with the conventional provisions of Korea Highway Design Specification. This study has been performed to verify the effect of lap spliced longitudinal steel, confinement steel type and confinement steel ratio far the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete bridge piers. Quasi-static test has been done to investigate the physical seismic performance of RC bridge piers, such as displacement ductility, energy absorption, strength degradation etc.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.31-40
• /
• 2002

The purpose of this study is to investigate the seismic behavior of RC bridge piers and to provide the data for developing improved seismic design criteria. The accuracy and objectivity of the assessment process may be enhanced by the use of sophisticated nonlinear finite element analysis program. A computer program, named RCAHEST(reinforced concrete analysis in higher evaluation system technology), for the analysis of reinforced concrete structures was used. Material nonlinearity is taken into account by comprising tensile, compressive and shear models of cracked concrete and a model of reinforcing steel. The smeared crack approach is incorporated. n boundary plane at which each member with different thickness is connected, local discontinuity in deformation due to the abrupt change in their stiffness can be taken into account by introducing interface element. The effect of number of load reversals with the same displacement amplitude has been also taken into account to model the reinforcing steel and concrete. In the companion paper, the proposed numerical method for seismic damage evaluation of RC bridge piers is verified by comparison with the reliable experimental results.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2000.10a
• /
• pp.348-355
• /
• 2000

The characteristics on non linear behavior and the failure mechanism of RC space frame structure serving railway under seismic action have been investigated by numerical analysis in time domain. The structure concerned is modeled in 3 dimensional extent and RC frame elements with fibers are employed. Fibers are characterized as RC one and PL one to distinguish different energy release after cracking. Due to deviation of mass center and stiffness center of entire structure the complex behavior under seismic action is shown. The excessive shear force is concentrated on the pier beside flexible one relatively, which leads to failure of bridge concerned.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.91-102
• /
• 2007

Through lessons in recent earthquakes, the bridge engineering community recognizes the need for new seismic design methodologies based on the inelastic structural performance of RC bridge structures. This study represents results of performance-based fragility analysis of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge. Monte carlo simulation is performed to study nonlinear dynamic responses of RC bridge. Two-parameter log-normal distribution function is used to represent the fragility curves. These two-parameters, referred to as fragility parameters, are estimated by the traditional maximum likelihood procedure, which is treated each event of RC bridge pier damage as a realization of Bernoulli experiment. In order to formulate the fragility curves, five different damage states are described by two practical factors: the displacement and curvature ductility, which are mostly influencing on the seismic behavior of RC bridge piers. Five damage states are quantitatively assessed in terms of these seismic ductilities on the basis of numerous experimental results of RC bridge piers. Thereby, the performance-based fragility curves of RC bridge pier are provided in this paper. This approach can be used in constructing the fragility curves of various bridge structures and be applied to construct the seismic hazard map.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.251-269
• /
• 2014

To investigate the seismic performance and to obtain quantitative parameters for the requirement of performance-based bridge seismic design approach, 12 reinforced concrete (RC) hollow rectangular bridge column specimens were tested under constant axial load and cyclic bending. Parametric study is carried out on axial load ratio, aspect ratio, longitudinal reinforcement ratio and transverse reinforcement ratio. The damage states of these column specimens were related to engineering limit states to determine the quantitative criteria of performance-based bridge seismic design. The hysteretic behavior of bridge column specimens was simulated based on the fiber model in OpenSees program and the results of the force-displacement hysteretic curves were well agreed with the experimental results. The damage states of residual cracking, cover spalling, and core crushing could be well related to engineering limit states, such as longitudinal tensile strains of reinforcement or compressive strains of concrete, etc. using cumulative probability curves. The ductility coefficient varying from 3.71 to 8.29, and the equivalent viscous damping ratio varying from 0.19 to 0.31 could meet the requirements of seismic design.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.201-212
• /
• 2014

The plastic hinge region of RC pier ensures its nonlinear behavior during strong earthquake events. It is assumed that the piers secure sufficient strength and ductility in order to prevent the collapse of the bridge during strong earthquake. However, the presence of a lap-splice of longitudinal bars in the plastic hinge region may lead to the occurrence of early bond failure in the lap-splice zone and result in significant loss of the seismic performance. The current regulations for seismic performance evaluation limit the ultimate strain and displacement ductility considering the eventual presence of lap-splice, but do not consider the lap-splice length. In this study, seismic performance test and analysis are performed according to the cross-sectional size and the lap-splice length in the case of longitudinal bars with lap-splice located in the plastic hinge region of existing RC bridge columns with circular cross-section. The seismic behavioral characteristics of the piers are also analyzed. Based upon the results, this paper presents a more reasonable seismic performance evaluation method considering the lap-splice length and the cross-sectional size of the column.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.11 no.5
• /
• pp.107-118
• /
• 1999

10 RC bridge piers have been made on a 1/3.4 scale model, and six piers of them were retrofitted with glassfiber. The have been tested in the quasi-static cyclic load so as to investigate their seismic enhancement before and after retrofitting with glassfibers. The objective of this experimental study is to investigate how to strength the ductility of reinforced concrete bridge piers which have been nonseismically designed and constructed in Korea before 1992. Important test parameters are axial load, load pattern, retrofit type. Glassfiber sheets were used for retrofitting in the plastic hinge region of concrete piers. The nonlinear behavior of bridge columns have been evaluated through their yield and ultimate strength, energy dissipation, displacement ductility and load-deflection characteristics under quasi-static cyclic loads. It can be concluded from the test that concrete piers strengthened with glassfibers have been enhanced for their ductile behavior by approximate 50%.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2004.11a
• /
• pp.591-594
• /
• 2004

Recently, a tendency for development of seismic approach of foreign countries is capacity design development. Capacity design is rational seismic design concept of capacity protection considering not only earthquake magnitude, but also behavior of structure. For that reason, the most bridge seismic design specifications contain capacity protection provisions explicitly or implicitly. The capacity protection is normally related with slenderness effect of the columns, force transfer in connections between columns and adjacent elements, and shear design of columns. It intends to prevent brittle failure of the structural components of bridges, so that the whole bridge system may show ductile behavior and failure during earthquake events. The objectives of this paper are to deduce needed provisions for the moderate seismicity regions such as Korea after studying current seismic design codes and to establish rational criteria provisions of seismic design for future revision of seismic design specifications.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.231-251
• /
• 2019

In the present study, a numerical and experimental investigation has been carried out on the seismic behavior of RC columns of a bridge which damaged under corrosive environments and retrofitted by various techniques including combined application of CFRP sheets and steel profiles. A novel hybrid retrofitting procedure, including the application of inner steel profiles and outer peripheral CFRP sheets, has been proposed for strengthening purpose. Seven large-scale RC columns of a Girder Bridge have been tested in the laboratory under the influence of simultaneous application of constant axial load and the lateral cyclic displacements. Having verified the finite element modeling, using ABAQUS software, the effects of important parameters such as the corrosion percentage of steel rebars and the number of CFRP layers have been evaluated. Based on the results, retrofitting of RC columns of the bridge with the proposed technique was effective in improving some measures of structural performance such as lateral strength degradation and higher energy absorption capability. However, the displacement ductility was not considerably improved whereas the elastic stiffness of the specimens has been increased.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.545-566
• /
• 2009

Bridge columns are subjected to combined actions of axial force, shear force and bending moment during earthquakes, caused by spatially-complex earthquake motions, features of structural configurations and the interaction between input and response characteristics. Combined actions can have significant effects on the force and deformation capacity of RC columns, resulting in unexpected large deformations and extensive damage that in turn influences the performance of bridges as vital components of transportation systems. This paper evaluates the seismic response of three prototype reinforced concrete bridges using comprehensive numerical models that are capable of simulating the complex soil-structural interaction effects and nonlinear behavior of columns. An analytical approach that can capture the shear-flexural interacting behavior is developed to model the realistic nonlinear behavior of RC columns, including the pinching behavior, strength deterioration and stiffness softening due to combined actions of shear force, axial force and bending moment. Seismic response analyses were conducted on the prototype bridges under suites of ground motions. Response quantities of bridges (e.g., drift, acceleration, section force and section moment etc.) are compared and evaluated to identify the effects of vertical motion, structural characteristics and the shear-flexural interaction on seismic demand of bridges.