STUDY ON NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF FAILURE BEHAVIOR OF A PLAIN CONCRETE PIER DURING EARTHQUAKE

Abstract

 The typical damage pattern of plain concrete piers during earthquakes is horizontal gap at the cold joint of a pier and falling down of concrete pieces from the pier under the cold joint. It is necessary to develop a numerical analysis method suitable for plain concrete piers to evaluate their seismic safety against the future earthquakes. With this background, this study investigated the applicability of the refined DEM for the dynamic analysis of plain concrete piers. First, we proposed a new spring arrangement model in the refined DEM with which the friction coefficient and rocking angle are accurately produced. The validity of the new spring arrangement model was confirmed by comparing the results with theoretical solutions. Next, the dynamic behavior of a plain concrete pier during the shaking table was simulated. By improving the numerical model in addition to the spring arrangement model, we could improve the accuracy of horizontal dislocation and failure behavior. We could solve the problem of underestimating rotational angle, but the accuracy of rotational angle is insufficient.