FUNDAMENTAL STUDY ON LOAD CARRYING CAPASITIES OF STEEL BRIDGE PIERS UNDER DOZENS OF CYCLIC LOADING

Abstract

 Recently, long-period and long-duration time seismic waves caused by huge ocean-trench earthquakes have been observed in Japan, and a few dozen to several hundred times of cyclic shaking were occurred after principal motion in these waves. However, seismic performances of structures subjected to long-duration time motions are not clear. Therefore, this paper discusses the load bearing capacities of steel bridge piers during dozens of cyclic loading. Cyclic load carrying tests and a pseudo-dynamic test were carried out in order to investigate the cyclic load bearing capacity of steel bridge piers. Moreover, complex nonlinear analyses were conducted to simulate the experimental tests. Consequently, it is found that the load bearing capacity after maximum load is decreased about 10% due to cyclic loading over 10 times. Furthermore, numerical analyses have shown a part of the reason for deterioration of load bearing capacity after maximum load.