Experimental study on seismic performance of prefabricated pier with taper sleeve locking connection

Effective connection between segments is critical to ensure the normal service of prefabricated pier. Taper-sleeve locking is a new type of reinforcement connection, which is easy to operate and efficient to connect. However, there is no detailed research data on its application in prefabricated pier. Based on the engineering background of prefabricated piers of a proposed rail transit viaduct bridge, three test specimens with reduced scale of 1:3 were designed and fabricated, considering different connection type, namely cast-in-place connection (CIP), taper-sleeve locking connection (TS) and sleeve grouting connection (GS). The pseudo-static tests and numerical simulation analysis were completed. The failure forms, bearing capacity, stiffness degradation and self-recovery ability of the specimens were compared. Results show that TS connection is significantly more similar to CIP connection than GS connection. The final failure forms of the three specimens are typical bending failure, presented with the through cracks around the joint section between pier and cap, and concrete collapse in the column angle area. However, the cracks of CIP and TS specimen are uniformly distributed in the ring direction along the pier Those of GS specimen are more concentrated in the joint section. The load-bearing capacity and plastic rotation capacity of TS specimen are basically the same as those of CIP specimen, followed by the residual displacement and self-restoring capacity, and the energy dissipation capacity is the worst among the three specimens. The bearing capacity and energy dissipation capacity of GS specimen is both higher than those of the previous two. Compared with TS specimen, the bearing capacity of GS specimen is 34.3% higher while the ductility coefficient is 23.8% lower. Compared with the axial compression ratioincrease, the longitudinal reinforcement ratio increase can effectively improve the energy dissipation capacity and bearing capacity of TS specimen with little losing the ductility and self-recovery ability. The research results of this paper can provide a detailed technical reference for the design and application of prefabricated pier with taper-sleeve locking connection. © 2023, Central South University Press. All rights reserved.