Experimental Evaluation of the Seismic Performance of Circular Reinforced Concrete Bridge Columns

Based on the basic requirements of current Guidelines for Seismic Design of Highway Bridges, the orthogonal quasi-static test of four factors (shear-span ratio, longitudinal reinforcement diameter, axial-load ratio and spiral reinforcement ratio) at three different levels for circular reinforced concrete bridge columns has been designed. With test data the damage state, displacement ductility, capacity of accumulative energy dissipation to ultimate displacement state of bridge columns subjected to low-cyclic loading have been analyzed systematically so as to investigate effects of factors such as shear-span ratio, axial-load ratio, longitudinal reinforcement ratio and spiral reinforcement ratio on ductility performance of bridge columns.