ABSTRACT
Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is a newly emerging cementitious composite with superior mechanical performance. In this study, four types of piers are designed to investigate the optimization design of UHPC-RC composite piers. The column models with a reduced scale of 1:10 were adopted to study the mechanical performance of the RC and UHPC composited structures. In both tests and simulations, the UHPC-RC composite piers with short connecting steels achieved the largest axial carrying capacity. The hysteretic behavior of the UHPC-RC case with short connecting steels is better than the one without connecting steels according to simulation results. The hollow UHPC structure can be adopted for the optimization design of piers, because it can not only achieve good mechanical performance but also reduce the amount of concrete as well as the weight of the piers which is beneficial for the transport and assembly of precast piers in engineering applications.
