Damage assessment of bridge piers subjected to vehicle collision

Abstract

In this article, a method was proposed to assess damage of the bridge piers subjected to vehicle collision with the help of the detailed numerical model. Nonlinear material constitutive laws considering the strain rate effect were adopted in the models. Validation was performed by comparing the numerical results with the available experimental results in terms of impact force, displacement, and failure pattern. Based on the validated numerical models, the failure process and different damage levels of the piers under impacts were analyzed. The results showed a four-stage failure process as well as four damage levels with the increase of the vehicle impact force. According to the numerical study, a new damage index and the corresponding assessment criterion were defined to assess damage of the impacted pier. A vehicle impact force equation and a half-sine impact impulse were developed for damage index.

Vehicle collision with bridge piers: A state-of-the-art review

“…Such models might be combined with the general vehicular impact model to carry out a refined nonlinear response analysis for RC columns subjected to vehicular impact. The damage (performance) levels of RC piers under vehicle collision have been proposed (Abdelkarim and Elgawady, 2017;Agrawal et al, 2013;Sharma et al, 2012;Zhou and Li, 2018); however, their damage classification criteria have neither been quantitatively defined, nor the specific characteristics of the RC piers under vehicular impact (e.g. shear failure as the primary failure mode) have been fully considered.…”

“…Do et al (2019a, 2019b), respectively, proposed semi-empirical formulas for calculating dynamic shear capacity and sectional force demand (shear and bending moment) of RC columns under vehicle collision based on FE simulations, and finally established a force-based damage assessment method. On the other hand, some researchers employed the ratio of the peak of impact force (or equivalent static force) to the static shear capacity of RC columns to evaluate their damage states (Agrawal et al, 2013; Chen et al, 2020; Gomez and Alipour, 2014; Zhou and Li, 2018). Among them, Chen et al (2020) considered the influence of the axial force increment on the shear capacity of the RC columns under vehicle collision.…”

Damage characterization and resilience optimization of reinforced concrete bridge piers under vehicle impact

“…Investigations into characterizing the damage to bridge piers has been the focus of several studies. These studies have shed a light on the behavior of RC bridge pier under impact including increases in the material properties under high strain rate loading (Malvar and Crawford 1998), estimation of the dynamic shear capacity of an RC pier and the demand from colliding vehicles (Sharma et al 2012) and characterization of the damage suffered during impact via a damage index (Auyeung et al 2019;Zhou and Li 2018a). Unfortunately, little attention has been given to the role of concrete in this loading scenario especially in post impact transfer of load, estimating the damage level, probability of failure, and identifying an optimized combination of concrete and steel to enhance the performance of the piers under horizontal impact load.…”

“…The damage under impact load is identified using some parameters from the impact scenario, coalesced into a single parameter known as the damage index (λ). Characterizing the severity of damage to the structural member, the damage index (λ), is expressed as a ratio of the impact force and the dynamic shear capacity of the pier which are in turn contingent upon the vehicle characteristics and subsequent pier behavior respectively (Zhou and Li 2018a). To quantify the damage (Shi et al 2008) proposed, a relationship between the damage index and the residual capacity seem crucial with the initial design strength of the RC pier.…”

“…Difficulties in computing an exact impacting force due to its variation over the duration of impact, has led to the development of several models for estimating the impacting force as an equivalent static force. These models generally involve integrating the instantaneous impact force and normalizing this integrated force using different variables compared the different models and have determined that the local equivalent static force (LESF) model best captured the pattern of the impact force on the pier (Zhou and Li 2018a). However, in using this model to estimate the residual capacity, the variability of the design parameters as well as the parameters specifically administering the impact scenario are not considered.…”