• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.55-66
• /
• 1999

Eight RC bridge plers have been made on a 1/3.4 scale model and have been tested in a quasi-static cyclic load so as to investigate their seismic performance. The ultimate objective of this experimental study is to investigate the hysteretic behavior of reinforced concrete plers, which have been widely used for urban transportation facilities in Korea. Improtant test parameters are hoop ratio, axial load, load pattern, and etc. And noninear behaviors of test columns have been evaluated through their yield and ultimate strength, energy dissipation, ductility and load-deflection characteristics under quasi-static cyclic loads. From the quasi-static tests on 8 bridge piers, it is concluded that energy dissipation, ultimate strength and curvature for a given displacement factor ${\mu}={\Delta}/{\Delta}_y$ are higher for the seismically designed columns than for the nonseismically designed columns.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.41-54
• /
• 1999

Because of relatively heavy dead weight of concrete itself and unavoidable heat of massive concrete in bridge piers, circular hollow columns are widely used in Korean highway bridges. Since the occurrence of 1995 Kobe earthquake, there have been much concerns about seismic design for various infrastructures, inclusive of bridge structures. It is, however, understood that there are not much research works for nonlinear behavior of circular hollow columns subjected to eqrthquake motions. The objective of this experimental research is to investigate nonlinear behavior of circular hollow reinforced concrete bridge piers under the quasi-static cyclic load, and then to enhance their ductility by strengthening the plastic hinge region with glassfiber sheets. Particularly for this test, constant 10 cyclic loads have been repeatedly actuated to investigate the magnitude of strength degradation for the displacement ductility factor. Important test parameters are seismic design, confinement steel ratio, axial force and load pattern. It is observed from quasi-static tests for 7 bridge piers that the seismically designed columns and the retrofitted columns show better performance than the nonseismically designed colums, i.e. about 20% higher for energy dissipation capacity and about 70% higher for curvatures.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.1695-1705
• /
• 2014

In the present study, a total of 275 tested specimens (149 of non-seismically designed and 126 of seismically designed) for reinforced concrete bridge piers with circular section have been investigated in order to suggest drift limits probabilistically according to damage states in seismic fragility analysis. Thus, quantitative damage states of the piers have been evaluated depending on details of the piers. Nonlinear time-history analyses have been conducted for a damaged bridge in terms of using the suggested drift limits. Then, seismic fragility analysis for a reinforced concrete bridge structure has been conducted using both suggested and existing drift limits. Comparative analyses have revealed that median values by the suggested limits is smaller than those by the existing limits. This implies that seismic performance of the structure can be overestimated when the existing limits are used.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.705-714
• /
• 2003

Even though Korean peninsula is located in regions of moderate seismic risks, current seismic design provisions of the roadway bridge design code have adopted the AASHTO code which is based on the requirements for high seismic regions. The objective of this research is to investigate the seismic performance of circular reinforced concrete (RC) bridge piers with limited ductility, which may be desirable in low or moderate seismic regions, such as in Korea. Four test specimens were designed and constructed. The reference specimen was designed with longitudinal steel ratio as 1.01% and the confinement reinforcement ratio as 0.13% without considering earthquake, and three other test specimens were designed in accordance with a limited-ductility concept as 0.3% for the confinement steel ratio. This confinement ratio is 0.32 times of minimum lateral reinforcement specified in current seismic design provisions, and 2.3 times of lateral reinforcement required in nonseismic design provisions. The pseudo-dynamic test was carried out to evaluate the seismic performance of full-scale specimens in size of 1.2m diameter and 4.8m height. Judging from the experiment, the reference specimen was not satisfactory for the demand displacement ductility ${\mu}$=5.0, but three limited-ductility specimens appeared to have the displacement ductility of more than 5.