Plastic hinge models for the seismic assessment of reinforced concrete wall-type piers with detailing deficiencies

Plastic hinge models are widely used in earthquake engineering to predict the load-deformation relationships of reinforced concrete members. For the seismic assessment of bridges, it is appealing to use those relatively simple models if the response is predicted with sufficient accuracy. The applicability of these models to wall-type bridge piers with weak seismic detailing is examined. Flexural and shear deformations were computed using several approaches and the results were compared with experimental data of such piers. A couple of modelling approaches exist that allow accounting for shear deformations, which are not negligible for wall-type piers, within the scope of plastic hinge analysis. Computing the shear deformations was associated with considerable scatter while the flexural deformations were generally predicted well. The paper concludes with identifying those assumptions underlying the shear deformation models, which differ from the experimental observations and should therefore be modified if applied to the examined type of structures.