Experimental Evaluation for Seismic Performance of RC Bridge Piers with FRP Confinement

FRP 횡보강근을 이용한 RC 교각의 내진성능 평가 실험

Recently, there are much concerns about new and innovative transverse materials which could be used instead of conventional transverse steel in reinforced concrete bridge piers. FRP materials could be substituted for conventional transverse steel because of their sufficient strength, light weight, easy fabrication, and useful applicability to any shapes of pier sections, such as rectangular or circular sections. The objective of this research is to evaluate the seismic performance of reinforced concrete bridge pier specimens with FRP transverse reinforcement by means of the Quasi-Static test. In the first task, test columns were made using FRP rope, but these specimens appeared to fail at low displacement ductility levels due to insufficient confinement of strand extension itself. Therefore, the second task was to evaluate the seismic performance of test specimens transversely confined with FRP band. Although FRP banded specimens showed lower seismic performance than the specimen with spiral reinforcing steel, it satisfied with the response modification factor, 3, required for the single column of Korea bridge roadway design code. It was concluded that FRP band could be efficiently substituted for conventional reinforcing steel.