Experimental tests and numerical simulations of circular reinforced concrete piers under ship impact

A growing number of bridge structures spanning over waterways are most susceptible to ship-pier collisions that may result in serious consequences such as ship sinking, failure and collapse of the bridge, even personal casualty, etc. To quantify the impact force and load, ship-pier impact tests and reliable numerical predictions should be carried out. This paper shows experimental tests and numerical simulation results of ship impact on bridge piers. To assess the performance of circular reinforced concrete piers against ship collisions and guide the design of bridge piers against impact, reduced-scale circular reinforced concrete (RC) piers were built and tested, and finite element (FE) simulations based on edge pier of junction pier of Wu-Song River Bridge were also conducted. To evaluate the reasonability of the damage process and failure mode of the pier due to ship impact more accurately, the bridge piers are modeled with nonlinear materials to simulate the bridge pier characteristics instead of rigid and elastic materials. Based on numerical results, the design impact loads prescribed by code current specifications such as Eurocode and AASHTO Bridge Design Specifications were evaluated and compared. To predict impact force, the fiber section model was employed to attain ultimate bearing capacity of the pier.