Citation

Li H, Lv K, Cui R. Bull. Earthq. Eng. 2020; 18(7): 3401-3432.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, European Association on Earthquake Engineering, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10518-020-00830-2

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A novel steel-box bridge-pier column with embedded replaceable energy-dissipating shell plates is proposed herein. The seismic performance of this new steel bridge column was investigated experimentally on eight unique steel-box pier samples with varying geometric and material features under vertical eccentric and horizontal cyclic loads. The experimental results were compared with numerical simulation results to validate the accuracy of the finite element method. The effects of fan-shaped stiffener spacing, eccentricity of vertical loading, ratio of axial compression, thickness of embedded shell, ratio of slenderness, and material strength of embedded shell plates and box wall plates on the seismic behaviour of the new steel-box bridge-piers are discussed.

RESULTS showed that installation of embedded energy-dissipating shell plates improved the ductility and strength capacity of the new type of steel bridge piers. The recommended fan-shaped stiffener spacing was one-third to half of the box cross-sectional dimension. If the spacing of the fan-shaped stiffeners is extremely small, the deformation of the embedded energy-consuming shells will be limited, resulting in a small fracture displacement of the specimen, accelerated stiffness degradation, and reduced deformation capacity and ductility. The eccentricity of the vertical loading results in asymmetrical skeleton curves. The decrease in axial compression ratio or the increase in embedded shell thickness can lead to a higher ultimate capacity and smoother post-yield hysteretic curve for the specimens, thereby affording better seismic performances. The increase in slenderness ratio can engender a reduced initial stiffness, ultimate load, and envelope area of the hysteresis loop for the specimen, thereby yielding a worse seismic performance. The increase in material strength in the box wall plates or embedded shell plates can yield a larger ultimate displacement and smaller stiffness degradation for the specimen, thereby suggesting an enhanced energy-consumption capacity and improved seismic performance for this new type of box bridge pier.

Language: en