Seismic Performance and Retrofit of Circular Bridge Piers with Spliced Longitudinal Steel

It is known that lap splice in the longitudinal reinforcement of reinforced concrete(RC) bridge columns is not desirable for seismic performance, but it is sometimes unavoidable. Lap splices were practically located in the potential plastic hinge region of most bridge columns that were constructed before the adoption of the seismic design provision of Korea Bridge Design Specification on 1992. The objective of this research is to evaluate the seismic performance of reinforced concrete(RC) bridge piers with lap splicing of longitudinal reinforcement in the plastic hinge region, to develop the enhancement scheme of their seismic capacity by retrofitting with glassfiber sheets, and to develop appropriate limited ductility design concept in low or moderate seismicity region. Nine test specimens in the aspect ratio of 4 were made with three confinement ratios and three types of lap splice. Quasi-static test was conducted in a displacement-controlled way under three different axial load levels. A significant reduction of displacement ductility ratios was observed for test columns with lap splices of longitudinal steels.