• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.965-970
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• 2001

The object of this research is to evaluate the seismic performance of existing RC bridge piers that were constructed before the adoption of the seismic design provision of Korea Bridge Design Specification in 1992. In this research, adopted test parameters were limited ductile design or non-seismic design, aspect ratio, confinement steel type, loading pattern, lap-spliced ratio for longitudinal reinforcement. This study has been performed to verify the effect of test parameter by quasi-static test. Quasi-static test has been done to investigate the physical seismic performance of RC bridge piers, such as lateral force-displacement hysteretic curve, envelope curve etc. It has been observed that seismic performance of lap-spliced test specimen, non-seismically designed specimens, was significantly reduced.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.343-355
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• 2013

Shear failure and core concrete crushing at plastic hinge region are the two main failure modes of bridge piers, which can make repair impossible and cause the collapse of bridge. To avoid the two types of failure of pier, a composite pier was proposed, which was formed by embedding high strength concrete filled steel tubular (CFT) column in reinforced concrete (RC) pier. Through cyclic loading tests, the seismic performances of the composite pier were studied. The experimental results show that the CFT column embedded in composite pier can increase the flexural strength, displacement ductility and energy dissipation capacity, and decrease the residual displacement after undergoing large deformation. The analytical analysis is performed to simulate the hysteretic behavior of the composite pier subjected to cyclic loading, and the numerical results agree well with the experimental results. Using the analytical model and time-history analysis method, seismic responses of a continuous girder bridge using composite piers is investigated, and the results show that the bridge using composite piers can resist much stronger earthquake than the bridge using RC piers.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.41-62
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• 2013

A comprehensive experimental program of cyclic tests on 1:3-scale models of bridge piers is going to be carried out at the Laboratory of Structures and Materials of the University of Basilicata. The testing models include eight RC single shaft piers with hollow circular cross section. Four piers have been realised using corroded steel rebars. In this paper, the results of preliminary numerical simulation analyses of the cyclic behaviour of the piers, carried out with Opensees using fiber-based models, are presented. Pull-out and lap-splice effects of steel rebars have been taken into account in the numerical analyses. First, the experimental specimens and the test set up are presented. Next, the results of the numerical analyses are discussed. In the numerical analyses, different configurations and levels of corrosion have been considered. The effective stiffness and equivalent damping of the piers is reported as a function of pier ductility and pier drift.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.455-480
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• 2015

In the last decade, displacement-based (DB) methods have become established design procedures for reinforced concrete (RC) structures. They use strain and displacement measures as seismic performance control parameters. As for other simplified seismic design methods, it is of great interest to prove if they are usually conservative in respect to more refined, nonlinear, time history analyses, and can estimate design parameters with acceptable accuracy. In this paper, the current Direct Displacement-Based Design (DDBD) procedure is evaluated for designing simple single degree of freedom (SDOF) systems with specific reference to simply supported RC bridge piers. Using different formulations proposed in literature for the equivalent viscous damping and spectrum reduction factor, a parametric study is carried out on a comprehensive set of SDOF systems, and an average error chart of the method is derived allowing prediction of the expected error for an ample range of design cases. Following the chart, it can be observed that, for the design of actual RC bridge piers, underestimation errors of the DDBD method are very low, while the overestimation range of the simplified displacement-based procedure is strongly dependent on design ductility.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.201-211
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• 2017

This paper experimentally investigates the effect of yield strength of reinforcing bars and stirrups on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) circular piers. Reversed cyclic loading tests of nine-large scale specimens with longitudinal and transverse reinforcement of different yield strengths (varying between HRB335, HRB500E and HRB600 rebars) were conducted. The test parameters include the yield strength and amount of longitudinal and transverse reinforcement. The results indicate that the adoption of high-strength steel (HSS) reinforcement HRB500E and HRB600 (to replace HRB335) as longitudinal bars without reducing the steel area (i.e., equal volume replacement) is found to increase the moment resistance (as expected) and the total deformation capacity while reducing the residual displacement, ductility and energy dissipation capacity to some extent. Higher strength stirrups enhance the ductility and energy dissipation capacity of RC bridge piers. While the product of steel yield strength and reinforcement ratio ($f_y{\rho}_s$) is kept constant (i.e., equal strength replacement), the piers with higher yield strength longitudinal bars are found to achieve as good seismic performance as when lower strength bars are used. When higher yield strength transverse reinforcement is to be used to maintain equal strength, reducing bar diameter is found to be a better approach than increasing the tie spacing.

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

• 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 Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.97-100
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• 2005

It has been known that lab splices of the longitudinal reinforcement steel in bridge columns are not desirable for seismic performance, but it is sometimes unavoidable. Lap splices were usually be located in the 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. This research is to evaluate the seismic performance of reinforced concrete bridge piers with lap splicing of longitudinal reinforcement in the plastic hinge region, and to develop the enhancement scheme of their seismic capacity by retrofitting with steel bands. It was observed that RC bridge specimens with lap-spliced longitudinal steels appeared to fail at low curvature and displacement ductility, but significant improvement was appeared in the ductility of RC specimens with steel bands retrofitted around the plastic hinge region.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1A
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• pp.237-246
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• 2006

In order to evaluate the seismic performance of damaged reinforced concrete members, particularly bridge piers, an inelastic time-dependent element is proposed. The proposed element enables increased characteristics due to structural intervention(i.e., repair or retrofitting) to be accurately reflected to the degraded strength and stiffness of the members. The inelastic time-dependent element having both birth and death time can freely be activated within the user-defined time intervals during static and dynamic time-history analysis. Comparative studies are carried out for reinforced concrete bridge piers that are repaired and retrofitted. Analytical predictions using the developed element show reasonable correlation with experimental results. Also conducted is a nonlinear time-history analysis of a reinforced concrete bridge under multiple earthquakes. The comparative analytical results prove the validation of current development. In all, it is concluded that the present element is capable of providing salient features for the healthy evaluation of seismic performance and hence seismic stability assessment of RC bridge piers being repaired and retrofitted.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1-12
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• 2004

Due to the 1989 Loma Prieta, 1995 Hyogoken Nambu earthquakes, etc, a number of bridge columns  were collapsed in flexure-shear failures as a consequence of the premature termination of the column longitudinal reinforcement. Nevertheless, previous researches for the performance of bridge columns were concentrated on the flexural failure mode. It is well understood that the seismic behaviour of RC bridge piers was dependent on the performance of the plastic hinge of RC bridge piers, the ductility of which was desirable to be computed on the basis of the curvature. Experimental investigation was made to evaluate the variation of the curvature of the plastic hinge  region for the seismic performance of earthquake-damaged RC columns in flexure-shear failure mode. Seven test specimens in the aspect ratio of 2.5 were made with test parameters: confinement ratios, lap splices, and retrofitting FRP materials. 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 under a constant axial load, $P=0.1f_{ck}A_g$. Residual seismic capacity of damaged specimens was evaluated by analzying the moment-curvature hysteresis and the curvature ductility. Test results show that the biggest curvature was developed around 15cm above the footing, which induced the column failure. It was observed that RC bridge specimens with lap-spliced longitudinal steels appeared to fail at low curvature ductility but significant improvement was made in the curvature ductility of RC specimens with FRP straps wrapped around the plastic hinge region. Based on the experimental variation of the curvature of RC specimens, new equivalent length of the plastic hinge region was proposed by considering the lateral confinement in this study. The analytical and experimental relationship between the displacement and the curvature ductility were compared based on this proposal, which gave excellent result.