Performance of precast concrete bridge piers with grouted sleeve connections against vehicle impact

The bridge failure caused by vehicle impact is a great potential traffic danger. According to the new trend of bridge industrialization construction, this study aims to explore the dynamic behavior and failure modes of precast concrete (PC) piers with grouted sleeve connections against vehicle impact. Finite element (FE) models of PC components under impact loadings are developed and calibrated against experimental tests. Then, the cali-brated simulation method of grouted sleeve connection is utilized to establish the numerical model of PC piers subjected to vehicle impact, and a comparative analysis is conducted to distinguish the impact responses of PC piers and reinforced concrete (RC) piers. A curvature-based method is proposed for the damage evaluation of the impacted PC piers. Further, intensive numerical simulations are performed to identify the effectiveness of sleeve location, interface shear strength, tensile strength of grouted sleeve, and axial force on the dynamic behavior of PC piers. The results show that the impact forces of RC and PC piers are almost identical, but the resistance mechanism of PC piers at the base varies from the shear-flexural mechanism to the truss-arch mechanism in the impact process. The proposed curvature-based method could intuitively describe damage details of PC piers, especially local damage. The grouted sleeve enhances the stiffness and capacity of the pier column in the sleeve region, and sleeve defects shall be avoided in the construction stage. The grouted layer would weaken the pier integrity, and thus obvious cracking and sliding are likely to appear at the interface. To some extent, increasing the axial force could improve the impact capacity of PC piers.