Seismic behavior of hollow rectangular bridge piers

This paper indicates four hollow rectangular piers subjected to constant axial load and cyclic horizontal displacement to investigate their seismic behavior including displacement ductility, dissipated energy and shear capacity. It was observed that even in the specimen of flexural failure the flexural cracks in the flange part changed into shear diagonal cracks once they progressed in the web part. The test results are also compared with measured value from models (Priestly, ATC-32, Caltrans and Chinese formulas) to calculate the shear force. The results show that the influence of shear cannot be neglected in hollow rectangular reinforced concrete piers. Although the hysteresis response was stable and the pier can dissipate energy under the earthquake. Therefore, using special hoops can effectively improve both the displacement ductility factor and shear capacity of hollow rectangular bridge piers.