Abstract
Ductile crack initiation is the first step of brittle fracture in steel bridge piers subjected to earthquake-induced cyclic loading. Therefore, seismic performance evaluation method considering ductile crack initiation is needed in order to prevent brittle fracture. The present study aims at developing an evaluation method for the prediction of ductile crack initiation due to large amplitude cyclic straining at the base and beam-column connection of steel bridge piers. By performing finite element analysis using shell elements, hysteretic plastic strain behavior is clarified. Moreover, by applying a damage index based on the Miner's law and the Manson-Coffin's law to the plastic strain history obtained from the analysis, ductile crack initiation is predicted and compared with that of the experiment.
