Impact Behavior of Rocking Bridge Piers

This research aims to investigate the energy dissipation characteristic and impact behavior of rocking piers under free vibration. Research parameters include rocking interfaces (stiff or flexible), geometry of the column cross-section (circular or rectangular), aspect ratio of the columns, anchorage of prestressing tendons and scale effect. To validate the proposed theory, five columns were constructed and will be tested. A numerical process was proposed to simulate the rocking behavior of columns. Numerical analysis revealed that aspect ratio remarkably affects the rocking behavior, however, size effect and shape of cross section had no significant influence on the rocking behavior. Contrary to the instinct, anchored columns may have less damping due to the higher restoring forces that leads to larger acceleration and slower degradation in kinetic energy.