Seismic performance of a flexural failure type reinforced concrete bridge column based on E-Defense excitation

Abstract

This paper presents a 3D shake table experiment on a large scale reinforced concrete bridge column using E-Defense. The model was a typical reinforced concrete column which was built in the 1970s in Japan. Collapse of this type of column was one of the major causes of the extensive damage during the 1995 Kobe, Japan earthquake. A 7.5 m tall, 1.8 m diameter column model was excited twice by a near-field ground motion which was recorded during the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Both experimental response and analytical correlation are presented.