Experimental and Analytical Seismic Studies of Bridge Piers with Innovative Pipe Pin Column-footing Connections and Precast Cap Beams

Experimental and Analytical Seismic Studies of Bridge Piers with Innovative Pipe Pin Column-footing Connections and Precast Cap Beams
Author: Ali Mehrsoroush
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1518
Release: 2014
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN:

The use of prefabricated structural elements is an integral part of many accelerated bridge construction (ABC) efforts. Connections of these prefabricated elements to the rest of the structural system is critical to the performance of the structure under service loads and extreme events such as earthquakes. Two types of novel joints were developed in this study: 1) base pipe pin connections to substantially reduce the moment transfer between the column and footing, and 2) pocket connections to provide structural continuity at column-cap beam joints. The pipe pin consists of two steel pipes to transfer shear and a tension member to transfer uplift forces. Pocket connection is formed by extending the column into a pre-fabricated pocket in a precast cap beam and grouting the space between the column segment and the pocket. The primary objective of this research was to investigate the seismic performance, response, and behavior of base pipe pins for both cast-in-place (CIP) and precast construction, to study the performance of column-cap beam pocket connections to be utilized in ABC, and to develop a reliable design guideline for base pipe pins. This research was comprised of comprehensive experimental and analytical studies. The experimental portion of the study was conducted at the University of Nevada, Reno Large Scale Structural Laboratory including three sets of tests: 1) cyclic loading test of a large-scale two-column bent model, and 2) two direct pull tests of CIP and precast pipe pin connections. The bent model was composed of a precast engineered cementitious composite (ECC)-concrete column, a conventional CIP reinforced concrete column, a precast cap beam, and two single footings. The columns were connected to the footing and cap beam utilizing pipe pin and pocket connections, respectively. Direct pull tests were carried out to investigate the failure mode of the pipe pins under direct tension and determine the ultimate tensile capacity of the pins. The proposed pipe pin connections were found to be successful even under high drift ratios. Test results revealed that pipe pins needs to be designed for shear forces that exceed the column design shear due to reversed friction under large base rotations. Direct pull tests of the pipe pins showed that the dominant failure mode of the connection under pure tension was rupture of the tension member and all the other connection elements remained damage free. The pocket connection using corrugated steel pipes with a column embedment length of 1.2 times the column diameter performed well in forming the plastic hinge when conventional concrete was used in the embedded region. However, longitudinal bars in the precast column with embedded ECC debonded at 4% drift ratio. The analytical study consisted of 1) elaborate finite element (FE) modeling of the pipe pin connections and footings under direct tension, 2) FE study of the two-column bent, and 3) analytical modeling of pipe embedded in the footing (pipe shear key). ABAQUS and OpenSees were used in the analyses. The analytical models were evaluated based on correlation with experimental data, and were then used to investigate the effects of different parameters on the seismic performance of pipe pins. Results of the parametric studies along with the experimental observations led to an iterative procedure to determine seismic demands and methods for designing pipe pins. This was followed by development of design and detailing methods and illustrative examples.

Experimental and Analytical Seismic Studies of a Four-span Bridge System with Composite Piers

Experimental and Analytical Seismic Studies of a Four-span Bridge System with Composite Piers
Author: Fatemeh Kavianipour
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1350
Release: 2013
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN:

Funded by the National Science Foundation through the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) research program, a major multi-university research project has been in progress at the University of Nevada, Reno. This study describes the study of one of the three large-scale bridge models that were tested to failure on three shake tables system. This model was supported on fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite piers implementing accelerated bridge construction (ABC) techniques. The bridge was a quarter scale model of a 4-span bridge with continuous reinforced concrete superstructure and a drop cap, two-column pier design. Each pier utilized different unconventional FRP details. The purpose of using these innovative details was to improve the seismic performance of the bridge. The first pier consisted of cast-in-place concrete-filled glass FRP tubes with ±55 degree fibers. The second pier consisted of two segmental reinforced concrete columns wrapped with layers of unidirectional carbon FRP sheets to provide confinement and shear reinforcement. Only nominal hoops were used to hold the longitudinal reinforcement, as FRP jacket and tube were sufficient in providing confinement and shear required reinforcement. The third pier had the same configuration as that of pier 1 but the columns and footing were precast. The top connections in piers 1 and 3 consisted of pipe-pin joints to facilitate ABC and provide hinge behavior. The objectives of the study presented in this document were to evaluate the biaxial seismic performance of this bridge system incorporating composite piers, investigate the performance of each detail and compared them to each other and to conventional ones, determine the influence of abutment-superstructure interaction on the response, assess the performance of a bridge model incorporating ABC techniques, evaluate sufficiency of analytical modeling of the performance of composite material and details, and to conduct parametric study of different variations of the bridge model to study the effect of several important factors such as near-fault earthquake effects and the variations in the configuration of the bridge model. large-scale 4-span bridge model was designed, constructed, and subjected to simulated earthquake loading on three shake tables. The simulated shake table motions were the modified 1994 Northridge, CA ground motion recorded in Century City and were applied to the bridge model in ten runs with increasing amplitudes. Over 380 channels of data were collected. Compared to conventional reinforced concrete bridges, experimental results showed superior performance under extreme seismic loading even under lateral drift ratios exceeding 9%. Extensive post-test analytical studies were conducted and it was determined that a computational model of the bridge that included bridge-abutment interaction using OpenSees was able to provide satisfactory estimations of key structural response parameters such as superstructure displacements. The analytical model was also used to conduct parametric studies on response of the bridge model and its variations under near-fault excitations. The effects of changing the column section properties were also explored. It was found that concrete-filled FRP tube piers and CFRP wrapped post-tensioned segmental piers reduce residual displacements compared to their conventional reinforced concrete counter parts even under impulsive near-fault motions.

Seismic Performance of Bridge Column-pile-shaft Pin Connections for Application in Accelerated Bridge Construction

Seismic Performance of Bridge Column-pile-shaft Pin Connections for Application in Accelerated Bridge Construction
Author: Mehrdad Mehraein
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1468
Release: 2016
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN:

Bridges with integral superstructures are common in high-seismic regions. The superstructure and substructure are connected using rigid connections in these bridges. However, hinge or “pin” connections may be used to connect columns to pile-shafts to reduce the overall force demand in the integral bridges, leading to smaller and more economical foundations. Additionally, prefabrication of structural elements facilitates accelerated bridge construction (ABC), which could improve the quality and economy of project compared to cast-in-place (CIP). The primary objectives of this research were to investigate the seismic performance of three types of bridge bent connections: (1) pipe-pin connections at column-pile shaft joints for CIP and precast constructions (2) rebar-pin connections at column-pile shaft joint for CIP and precast constructions, and (3) pocket connections to develop rigid joints between precast columns and precast pier caps. This research was comprised of experimental and analytical studies. The experimental portion of the study was conducted on a shake table at the Earthquake Engineering Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno including two 1/3.75 scale, two-column bents subjected to seismic loadings. The cap beam in each bent was precast and connected to the columns using pocket details. The pin connections were used to connect the columns to pedestals, which simulated the pile-shafts. The column-pedestal joints were formed using pipe-pins in one bent and rebar-pin in the other bent. The available details of pin connections were modified for utilizing in the bents because the tensile force transfer mechanism and pile-shaft failure modes had not been accounted for in the current practices. A proposed ABC method for pin connections was investigated by constructing one column in each bent as a precast shell filled with self-consolidating concrete (SCC), whereas the other column was CIP. Furthermore, engineered cementitious composite (ECC) was incorporated in one column plastic hinge region of each bent to explore the effects of ECC on the seismic performance of the columns. The shake table experiments confirmed that the proposed design methods meet the safety and performance requirements of the codes under seismic loadings. The analytical studies consisted of: (1) simple stick models for the pin connections that were developed for the bents as design tools, (2) nonlinear finite element (FE) models for the pin connections in OpenSEES that can be utilized for global analysis of bridges with pin connections, and (3) elaborate nonlinear FE models of the bent with pipe-pins using ABAQUS to investigate the microscopic performance and interactions of the components. The analytical models were evaluated based on their correlation with experimental data and were subsequently used in focused parametric studies to address the gaps in the experimental results and provide more insight into the pin behavior under various conditions. Lastly, design procedures and detailing recommendations for column-pile-shaft connections using pipe-pins and rebar-pins were developed and proposed based on the results of the experimental and analytical parametric studies.

Seismic Design of Pipe-pin Connections in Concrete Bridges

Seismic Design of Pipe-pin Connections in Concrete Bridges
Author: Arash Esmaili Zaghi
Publisher:
Total Pages: 546
Release: 2010
Genre: Concrete bridges
ISBN:

Telescopic pipe-pin two-way hinges are used in concrete bridges to eliminate moments while transferring shear and axial loads from integral bridge bent caps to reinforced concrete columns. The hinges consist of a steel pipe that is anchored in column with a protruded segment that extends into the bent cap. In the absence of experimental and analytical studies, design of pipe-pin hinges has been based on pure shear capacity of the steel pipe. The primary objective of this research was two folds: (1) to investigate the seismic performance of the current detail of pipe-pin hinges and propose necessary modifications and (2) to develop a reliable design method for pipe-pin hinges that reflects their actual behavior. This research was comprised of comprehensive experimental and analytical studies of pipe-pin connections and their components including a shake table study of a two-column pier model. The experimental component of the study included three sets of test models: (1) six push-off specimens to evaluate the bearing strength of concrete against the steel pipe, (2) six pure shear specimens to determine the yielding and ultimate shear capacities, and (3) a two-column 0.2-scale bridge pier model incorporating pipe-pin hinges that were designed based on the proposed guideline. The pier model was used to evaluate the new design method under earthquake excitation. The experiments showed that the lateral failure mechanism is typically controlled by concrete diagonal tensile cracking of the column in combination with flexural yielding of the steel pipe as opposed to pure shear, although the pure shear failure mode should be considered when a large amount of lateral steel is used in the column. Another possible mode of failure is bearing failure of the concrete around the pipe in heavily reinforced columns. The shake table experiment of the pier model confirmed that the proposed design method meets the safety and performance requirements under seismic loading. The analytical studies consisted of (1) a stick model in SAP2000 that was developed for pipe shear key subassemblies, (2) detailed nonlinear FE models using ABAQUS that were used to performed an extensive parametric study in order to shed light on different aspects of the behavior and generate the required data for the design guideline, and (3) a model in OpenSees that utilized a macro model for the pipe-pin hinges. The experimental and analytical results helped identify the means to improve the performance of current pipe-pin hinge details. The pipe studs and spiral around the can proved to be unnecessary and were eliminated in the proposed standard detail. A thicker tapered hinge throat was suggested to solve the problem of local concrete damage to the throat and column edges. As a possible extension of pipe-pin application, a study was conducted on pipe-pins combined with isolation and damping systems. The analytical modeling of these details showed that modified connections can reduce the demands on the structure by dissipating a major portion of the earthquake energy.

Bridge Maintenance, Safety, Management, Resilience and Sustainability

Bridge Maintenance, Safety, Management, Resilience and Sustainability
Author: Fabio Biondini
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 4119
Release: 2012-06-21
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0203103386

Bridge Maintenance, Safety, Management, Resilience and Sustainability contains the lectures and papers presented at The Sixth International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS 2012), held in Stresa, Lake Maggiore, Italy, 8-12 July, 2012. This volume consists of a book of extended abstracts (800 pp) Extensive collection of revised expert papers on recent advances in bridge maintenance, safety, management and life-cycle performance, representing a major contribution to the knowledge base of all areas of the field.

Experimental and Analytical Seismic Studies of a Four-span Bridge System with Innovative Materials

Experimental and Analytical Seismic Studies of a Four-span Bridge System with Innovative Materials
Author: Carlos Alonso Cruz-Noguez
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1524
Release: 2010
Genre:
ISBN:

As part of a multi-university project utilizing the NSF Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), a quarter-scale model of a four-span bridge incorporating plastic hinges with different advanced materials was tested to failure on the three shake table system at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). The bridge was the second test model in a series of three 4-span bridges, with the first model being a conventional reinforced-concrete (RC) structure. The purpose of incorporating advanced materials was to improve the seismic performance of the bridge with respect to two damage indicators: (1) column damage and (2) permanent deformations. The goals of the study presented in this document were to (1) evaluate the seismic performance of a 4-span bridge system incorporating SMA/ECC and built-in rubber pad plastic hinges as well as post-tensioned piers, (2) quantify the relative merit of these advanced materials and details compared to each other and to conventional reinforced concrete plastic hinges, (3) determine the influence of abutment-superstructure interaction on the response, (4) examine the ability of available elaborate analytical modeling techniques to model the performance of advanced materials and details, and (5) conduct an extensive parametric study of different variations of the bridge model to study several important issues in bridge earthquake engineering. The bridge model included six columns, each pair of which utilized a different advanced detail at bottom plastic hinges: shape memory alloys (SMA), special engineered cementitious composites (ECC), elastomeric pads embedded into columns, and post-tensioning tendons. The design of the columns, location of the bents, and selection of the loading protocol were based on pre-test analyses conducted using computer program OpenSees. The bridge model was subjected to two-horizontal components of simulated earthquake records of the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Over 340 channels of data were collected. The test results showed the effectiveness of the advanced materials in reducing damage and permanent displacements. The damage was minimal in plastic hinges with SMA/ECC and those with built-in elastomeric pads. Conventional RC plastic hinges were severely damaged due to spalling of concrete and rupture of the longitudinal and transverse reinforcement. Extensive post-test analytical studies were conducted and it was determined that a computational model of the bridge that included bridge-abutment interaction using OpenSees was able to provide satisfactory estimations of key structural parameters such as superstructure displacements and base shears. The analytical model was also used to conduct parametric studies on single-column and bridge-system response under near-fault ground motions. The effects of vertical excitations and transverse shear-keys at the bridge abutments on the superstructure displacement and column drifts were also explored.

Seismic Performance of Reinforced Concrete Bridges Allowed to Uplift During Multi-Directional Excitation

Seismic Performance of Reinforced Concrete Bridges Allowed to Uplift During Multi-Directional Excitation
Author: Andres Oscar Espinoza
Publisher:
Total Pages: 666
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

Abstract Seismic Performance of Reinforced Concrete Bridges Allowed to Uplift During Multi-Directional Excitation by Andres Oscar Espinoza Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering - Civil and Environmental Engineering University of California, Berkeley Professor Stephen A. Mahin, Chair The behavior of bridges subjected to recent moderate and large earthquakes has led to bridge design detailed for better seismic performance, particularly through wider bridge foundations to handle larger expected design forces. Foundation uplift, which is not employed in conventional bridge design, has been identified as an important mechanism, in conjunction with structural yielding and soil-structure interaction that may dissipate energy during earthquakes. Preventing uplift through wider foundations looks past the technical and economical feasibility of allowing foundation uplift during seismic events. The research presented in this thesis is part of a larger experimental and analytical investigation to develop and validate design methods for bridge piers on shallow foundations allowed to uplift during seismic events. Several analytical and some experimental studies have been performed to assess rocking and or uplift of shallow foundation systems, however they have evaluated systems with a limited range of footing dimensions and seismic excitations. As such, there is an uncertainty in the information needed to base a performance evaluation and develop design methods. The purpose of this study is to investigate, through experimental and analytical studies, the seismic performance of uplifting bridge piers on shallow foundations when considering different ground motions and footing dimensions. As well as to identify key differences in performance evaluation criteria for conventional and uplifting bridge pier systems. The experimental study dynamically tested a single reinforced concrete bridge column specimen with three adjustable footing configurations grouped by footing dimension, and tested for various combinations of one, two, and three components of seismic excitation. Groups one and two evaluated uplifting systems where the column was limited to elastic loading levels while group three considered inelastic column loading levels. All test groups remained stable and exhibited some rocking and or uplift during testing. Analytical models were developed and validated using the experimental testing results to predict local and global footing and column response. Reliable estimates of forces and displacements during elastic and inelastic response were achieved. To assess the seismic performance of a range of bridge pier systems allowed to uplift a parametric investigation using the validated analytical models was performed in which the column was modeled per conventional design criteria to ensure adequate strength and flexural ductility. The parameters varied include footing width, ground motion excitation, and elastic or inelastic column response. Response of the uplifting bridge pier systems was found to be sensitive to the structural periods, magnitude of excitation, and footing width.