• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.109-120
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of new hollow reinforced concrete (RC) bridge pier sections with triangular reinforcement details. The proposed triangular reinforcement details are economically feasible and rational and facilitate shorter construction periods. A model of pier sections with triangular reinforcement details was tested under quasi-static monotonic loading. As a result, proposed triangular reinforcement details was equal to existing reinforcement details in terms of required performance. In the companion paper, the parametric study for the performance assessment of new hollow RC bridge pier sections with triangular reinforcement details is performed.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.121-132
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate the behavior characteristics of new hollow reinforced concrete (RC) bridge pier sections with triangular reinforcement details and to provide the details and reference data. Among the numerous parameters, this study concentrates on the shape of the section, the reinforcement details and the spacing of the transverse reinforcement. Additional eight column section specimens were tested under quasi-static monotonic loading. In this study, the computer program, named RCAHEST (Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology), was used. A innovative confining effect model was adopted for new hollow bridge pier sections. This study documents the testing of new hollow RC bridge pier sections with triangular reinforcement details and presents conclusions based on the experimental and analytical findings.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.377-384
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• 2003

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.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.163-170
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• 2004

The main objective of this research is to determine the optimal sections of infrastructure (the pier and foundation) for orthotropic steel decks which is a part of prefabricated passenger car overpasses. Since the bridge to be designed allows only passenger cars, design loads are determined according to this condition. The total volume of the infrastructure is formulated as the objective function and the design constraints are based on the 'Korean Bridge Design Code' and 'Design Manual of Steel Framed Pier'. The programs used in this research are MATLAB 6.5 and MIDAS CIVIL.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.355-374
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• 2006

Thin walled steel bridge-piers/columns are vulnerable to damage, when subjected to earthquake excitations. Local buckling, global buckling or interaction between local and global buckling usually is the cause of this damage, which results in significant strength reduction of the member. In this study new innovative design concepts, "thin-walled corrugated steel columns" and "thin-walled cellular steel columns" are presented, which allow the column to undergo large plastic deformations without significant strength reduction; hence dissipate energy under cyclic loading. It is shown that, compared with the conventional designs, circular and stiffened box sections, these new innovative concepts might results in cost-effective designs, with improved buckling and ductility properties. Using a finite element model, that takes the non-linear material properties into consideration, it is shown that the corrugations will act like longitudinal stiffeners that are supporting each other, thus improving the buckling behavior and allowing for reduction of the overall wall thickness of the column.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.419-429
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• 2018

The seismic vulnerability analysis of multi-span bridges can be based on the response of the piers, provided that deck, bearings and foundations remain elastic. The lateral response of an RC bridge pier can be affected by different mechanisms (i.e., flexure, shear, lap-splice or buckling of the longitudinal reinforcement bars, second order effects). In the literature, simplified formulations are available for mechanisms different from the flexure. On the other hand, the flexural response is usually calculated with a numerically-based Moment-Curvature diagram of the base section and equivalent plastic hinge length. The goal of this paper is to propose a simplified analytical solution to obtain the Moment-Curvature relationship for hollow circular RC sections. This based on calibrated polynomials, fitted against a database comprising 720 numerical Moment-Curvature analyses. The section capacity curve is defined through the position of 6 characteristic points and they are based on four input parameters: void ratio of the hollow section, axial force ratio, longitudinal reinforcement ratio, transversal reinforcement ratio. A case study RC bridge pier is assessed with the proposed solution and the results are compared to a refined numerical FEM analysis, showing good match.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.463-484
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• 2014

Solid piers with a rounded rectangular cross-section are widely used in railway bridges for high-speed trains in China. Compared to highway bridge piers, these railway bridge piers have a larger crosssection and less steel reinforcement. Existing material models cannot accurately predict the seismic behavior of this kind of railway bridge piers. This is because only a few parameters, such as axial load, longitudinal and transverse reinforcement, are taken into account. To enable a better understanding of the seismic behavior of this type of bridge pier, a simultaneous influence of the various parameters, i.e. ratio of height to thickness, axial load to concrete compressive strength ratio and longitudinal to transverse reinforcements, on the failure characteristics, hysteresis, skeleton curves, and displacement ductility were investigated. In total, nine model piers were tested under cyclic loading. The hysteretic response obtained from the experiments is compared with that obtained from numerical studies using existing material models. The experimental data shows that the hysteresis curves have significantly pinched characteristics that are associated with small longitudinal reinforcement ratios. The displacement ductility reduces with an increase in ratio of axial load to concrete compressive strength and longitudinal reinforcement ratio. The experimental results are largely in agreement with the numerical results obtained using Chang-Mander concrete model.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.53-54
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• 2009

Steel-embedded composite piers provide flexible design alternatives to satisfy the required performance due to various design parameters of composite sections. For the fast construction of composite piers, bolt connection can be utilized for small size piers and post-tensioning to the pier segments for the large size piers. In this paper, experimental results on composite piers were investigated to evlauate the effects of design parameters on the behavior of composite piers. Appropriate sections and their integration methods were suggested according to the design conditions. For the modular construction of bridge piers, pier segments need to be divided considering their weight and careful considerations on details to adjust fabrication and construction error. Connection details for the pier cap were also proposed.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.545-556
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• 2019

Bridge piers with bending failure mode are seriously damaged only in the area of plastic hinge length in earthquakes. For this situation, a modified method for the layout of longitudinal reinforcement is presented, i.e., the number of longitudinal reinforcement is increased in the area of plastic hinge length at the bottom of piers. The quasi-static test of three scaled model piers is carried out to investigate the local longitudinal reinforcement at the bottom of the pier on the seismic performance of the pier. One of the piers is modified by increased longitudinal reinforcement at the bottom of the pier and the other two are comparative piers. The results show that the pier failure with increased longitudinal bars at the bottom is mainly concentrated at the bottom of the pier, and the vulnerable position does not transfer. The hysteretic loop curve of the pier is fuller. The bearing capacity and energy dissipation capacity is obviously improved. The bond-slip displacement between steel bar and concrete decreases slightly. The finite element simulations have been carried out by using ANSYS, and the results indicate that the seismic performance of piers with only increasing the number of steel bars (less than65%) in the plastic hinge zone can be basically equivalent to that of piers that the number of steel bars in all sections is the same as that in plastic hinge zone.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.287-309
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• 2012

Precast segmental bridge columns (PSBC) are alternatives for monolithic cast-in-situ concrete columns in bridge substructures, with fast construction speed and structural durability. The analytical tool for common use is demonstrated applicable for seismic performance prediction of PSBCs through experiment conducted earlier. Then the analytical program was used for parameter optimization of PSBC configurations under reversal cyclic loading. Shear strength by pushover analysis was compared with theoretical prediction. Moreover, seismic response of PSBC with energy dissipation (ED) bars was compared with its no ED bar counterpart under three history ground acceleration records. The investigation shows that appropriate ED bar and post-tensioned tendon arrangement is important for higher lateral bearing capacity and good ductility performance of PSBCs.