A Study on Behaviors of Composite Bridge Pier using Steel Pipes with Outer Ribs

Composite bridge pier using steel pipes with outer ribs will be able to save the construction cost and period In this paper, in order to investigate earthquake-resistant of the new type of composite bridge piers cyclic loading tests are conducted.Here, the thickness of steel pipes, and material property (normal rebar and PC strand), arrangement style and stiffening volume of hoop tie are taken as experimental variables. The results obtained from these experiments are as: 1) the proposed composite pier posses almost the same and / or larger ultimate capacity and a superior toughness comparing to those of those of normal RC pier: 2) both normal and diagonal stresses of steel pipe are increased corresponding to the thickness of steel pipe and hoop-tie volume increasing and 3) the steel pipe can effectively restrain dilatancy of concrete and can improve the toughness of bridge pier