Seismic Performance of Precast Post-Tensioned Segmental Bridge Piers with Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) Bars

In recent years, accelerated bridge construction (ABC) has led to substantial application of precast posttensioned segmental (PPS) bridge piers in bridge construction. However, PPS piers are not to be used in high-seismicity regions due to their low-energy dissipating capacity. To address this deficiency, this paper examines a segmental bridge pier with unbonded post-tensioned superelastic Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) bars through a Finite Element (FE) framework. The seismic performance of the PPS piers with SMA bars is investigated using far-field ground motions and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). IDA curves of PPS piers are obtained for top drift and normalized base shear, and results are compared with the ones without SMA bars. It is seen that the PPS piers with SMA bars developed higher normalized base shearresponses, which is mainly due to their higher stiffness compared to the ones without SMA. However, thePPS piers with SMA bars reduced the drift responses of the piers