SEISMIC BEHAVIOR OF PARTIALLY PRESTRESSED CONCRETE PIERS

Based on the experience obtained from the Hyogo-Ken Nambu 1995 earthquake, a reduction in residual displacements is necessary to achieve seismic resistant bridges. The objective of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of partially prestressed concrete (hereafter PPC) to reduce residual displacements of bridge piers. A series of experiments was carried out using small-scaled pier specimens. The experimental program basically showed an effectiveness of using PPC to reduce residual displacements after earthquake excitations. Additionally, a new hysteretic restoring force model for PPC piers was proposed and its applicability was verified. Furthermore, inelas tic residual drift ratio spectrums were introduced for piers having different quantities of prestressing tendons.