Lateral behaviour and performance evaluation of steel piers under cyclic lateral loading

This study explores the lateral behaviour and performance of hollow steel box piers under simultaneous axial and cyclic lateral loading. First, the motivation of the study and the lateral performance evaluation indices were described briefly. Following that, the experimental and numerical results were compared, and the trustworthiness of the numerical results was explored. The effects of design parameters on lateral performance are examined utilising past experimental and numerical data. It was verified that the width to thickness ratio (Rf), slenderness ratio λ¯, applied axial load (P), modified stiffener's equivalent slenderness ratio λ¯′s and cyclic loading pattern have a considerable effect on the lateral performance of the hollow steel box pier. Further, some other parameters that have a negligible effect were also identified. Then the causes and relationships between design parameters and primary failure modes such as local buckling and extremely low cycle fatigue (ELCF) were reviewed and discussed. Finally, existing formulae in the literature to evaluate the lateral performance of hollow steel box piers were summarised and compared using more than 200 available experimental and numerical data. In addition, the possibility of addressing the deficiencies of existing equations by substituting significant design parameters was considered. Then, two new sets of formulae for determining lateral performance of hollow steel piers based on two principal buckling modes was proposed. Predictions of these formulae were compared with actual data and analysed with statistical methodologies to show that the predictions of the proposed formulae are accurate and safer than the previous equations. •Parameters that affect the lateral behaviour and performance are reviewed.•Significant causes of buckling failures and buckling modes were investigated.•The influence of design parameters on ELCF failure was discussed.•Existing formulae's predictions were compared using >200 data.•New formulae were proposed to overcome the deficiencies of existing formulae.