ABSTRACT

This paper presents a simple SDOF formulation for inelastic seismic response analysis of eccentrically loaded steel bridge piers, considering the vertical inertia associated with horizontal ground motion. Modeling of the unsymmetrical hysteretic behavior is verified by pseudodynamic test results. It is shown that influence of vertical inertia force can not be neglected when e/h(e= eccentric distance, h= pier height) is relatively large. A parametric study shows that under design accelerograms, steel bridge piers with intermediate eccentricity (e/h around 0.1∼0.2) are susceptible to highest maximum displacement; And eccentricity definitely leads to higher residual displacement level than centrally loaded steel bridge piers.