Investigation on Ultimate Lateral Displacements of Coastal Bridge Piers with Different Corrosion Levels along Height

Abstract

Coastal bridges are continually attacked by chloride ions during their lifetime, making the structures vulnerable. Piers, which are the main components of bridge structures to resist lateral forces, are supposed to have adequate deformation capacity to protect the structures from collapse. This paper studies the performance of coastal bridge piers that deteriorate nonuniformly along the height due to varying corrosion characteristics. A prediction method is proposed to estimate the ultimate lateral displacement of coastal bridge piers, and the results of cyclic tests are used to verify the prediction accuracy. Next, the failure mechanism of coastal bridge piers is investigated, taking into account the combined influence of corrosion level and varying performance deteriorations along the height. The analytical results indicate that the sections along the pier height behave differently due to varying corrosion levels when the service time increases, and the maximum damaged position may transfer from the pier bottom to the zone where the performance deteriorates most significantly. In addition, the length proportions between different zones along the pier height strongly affect the seismic failure of coastal bridge piers.