IMPACT OF CONNECTIONS ON THE SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF PRECAST CONCRETE BRIDGE PIERS

Precast concrete elements for accelerated bridge construction are under-utilized in seismic regions. Connections developed specifically for seismic performance can help deploy accelerated construction in seismic regions. This research aims to investigate the impact of connections between precast elements on the seismic performance of precast concrete piers. Towards this objective, three precast concrete bridge pier systems, i.e., non-emulative piers, emulative piers, and hybrid piers, were investigated. The difference between them was the foundation-to-substructure and column segment-to-column segment connections. This paper presents finite element modeling methods applicable to non-emulative and emulative joints. These modeling methods, validated by test results, were used to predict the response of three precast concrete piers under monotonic lateral loading. Analysis results show that the strength of the non-emulative pier was significantly lower than the strengths of emulative and hybrid piers. The post-tension force and post-tension loss of the hybrid pier increased faster with increasing displacements than they did for emulative or non-emulative piers at small displacements. However, post-tension strands in the hybrid pier remained in the elastic range at large displacements, unlike emulative and non emulative piers. The analysis results showed that hybrid pier has the potential to mitigate damage at the emulative joint by initiating gap opening at the non-emulative joint. The compressive strain that develop due to gap opening right above the non-emulative joint can be kept below the spalling strain limit.