1997 Volume 8 Issue 1 Pages 151-160
The Hyogoken-Nanbu Earthquake induced severe damages in many urban highway bridge systems. These are mainly caused by brittle failure modes in reinforced concrete bridge piers. The collapses of reinforced concrete bridge piers are the result of underestimating load demands, insufficient ductility, and insufficient shear resistance. In this study, the effects of these factors on the reliability of reinforced concrete bridge piers are investigated.
In the analysis, the reliabilities associated with different limit states including ultimate state, yielding of reinforcing steel, and cracking of concrete are examined. For seismic loads, a practical reliabilitybased evaluation methodology for bridge piers is presented. The approach is demonstrated on a typical Japanese reinforced concrete bridge piers. The reliability under seismic loads is evaluated considering the effects of ductility.
