On the resistance of concrete hollow thin-walled high piers to rock collisions

Abstract

Concrete hollow thin-walled high piers (CHTWHPs) located in mountainous areas may be destroyed by the huge impact force of accidental rocks. The study focuses on analyzing the effects of rock impact on the pier, including its impact force, pier damage, dynamic response, and energy dissipation characteristics. The results show that: (1) Increasing the impact height led to a decrease in the peak impact force. Specifically, 15.5% decrease in the peak collision force is induced when the height of rock collision rises from 10 m to 40 m. (2) The damage mode of the pier’s collision surface is mainly oval damage with symmetrical center, radial damage on the side surface, and corner shear failure on the cross section. (3) The peak displacement of bridge pier increases with the increase of collision height. As the collision height increased from 10 m to 40 m, the bridge pier’s peak displacement also increased, rising by 104.2%. (4) The concrete internal energy gradually decreased with increasing collision height, dropping by 36.9% when the height of rock collision rises from 10 m to 40 m. The reinforcement internal energy showed an increase of 78%. The results of this study may provide reference for the rock collision resistance design of CHTWHPs.