Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Seismic Performance of UHPC Thin-Walled Short Piers

Rigid frame bridges with different heights of adjacent piers are inclined to crack the main girder at the pier-beam connection. This cracking occurs due to a significant difference in thrust stiffness between tall and short piers. This problem can be resolved by applying ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) materials. Thus, in the present paper, the seismic performance and failure behavior of UHPC thin-walled short piers were tested under low-frequency cyclic loads. Based on previous studies, the test was conducted using a proposed experimental model, where the effects of longitudinal reinforcement ratio, stirrup reinforcement ratio, and axial load ratio were considered. The failure mode, ultimate bearing capacity, stiffness, displacement ductility factor, and other performance parameters were analyzed. It was found that the specimens present the bending-shear failure mode. Also, the load-bearing capacity of the UHPC thin-walled piers was significantly improved by increasing the longitudinal ratio of the thin-walled short piers, while the contribution of the stirrup ratio was limited. In addition, compared with traditional short piers, the ductility of UHPC thin-walled short piers increased by 53.36%, and the thrust stiffness decreased by 23.73%, indicating that UHPC thin-walled short piers have more efficient seismic performance than RC short piers. Note that, in the present paper, UHPC thin-walled short piers’ internal behavior was also analyzed by establishing a finite element model. The analysis proves that the numerical results are consistent with the experimental data, which is promising to better understand the failure behavior.

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