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Author
Taylor, A. W. | El-Bahy, A. | Stone, W. C. | Kunnath, S. K.
Title
Effect of Load Path on Damage to Concrete Bridge Piers.
Coporate
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD University of Central Florida, Orlando
Report
NIST SP 904, August 1996,
Distribution
Available from Government Printing Office Available from National Technical Information Service
Book or Conf
U.S./Japan Natural Resources Development Program (UJNR). Wind and Seismic Effects. Joint Meeting of the U.S./Japan Cooperative Program in Natural Resources Panel on Wind and Seismic Effects, 28th. May 14-17, 1996, Gaithersburg, MD, Raufaste, N. J., Jr., Editors, 149-158 p., 1996
Keywords
bridges (structures) | bridge columns | building technology | damage modeling | earthquake engineering | laboratory testing | random loading | reinforced concretes
Abstract
In earthquake engineering studies of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge columns, a controlled, cyclic lateral load pattern with gradually increasing amplitude has traditionally been applied to laboratory test specimens. However, in actual earthquakes bridge columns are exposed to random cyclic lateral loading patterns, which are much different from typical laboratory loading patterns. Current American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) design provisions are based almost entirely on tests in which traditional, controlled laboratory loading patterns have been applied. The differences in the effects of these types of loading have never been explored systematically. In this study both types of loading (controlled, cyclic lateral loads, and random earthquake type loads) were applied to a series of twelve nominally identical, one-fourth scale circular, cantilever columns, and the differences in observed damage were studied. In this paper the experimental results are briefly summarized, and preliminary findings are discussed.