摘要: |
The Montana Department of Transportation has found concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) piles connected at the top by a concrete pile cap to be a very cost effective support system for short and medium span bridges. This type of system offers low initial cost, short construction time, low maintenance requirements, and a long service life. While the gravity load performance of these systems is well understood, their strength and ductility under extreme lateral loads (e.g., seismic events) is more difficult to reliably predict using conventional design procedures. The proposed research aims to further develop newly established design and analysis methodologies, and to ultimately ensure the desired bridge performance.
The primary objective of the project is to further validate/improve MDT�s CFST to concrete pile cap connection design/analysis methodologies, and to ensure the efficacy of these methodologies for a wide variety of potential design configurations. Work will begin by identifying potential gaps in the existing design/modeling strategies, and then designing tests that will help close these gaps. System attributes to be considered include cap dimensions, CFST diameter, and number of embedded piles--parameters which have not been varied in the experimental tests completed to-date. Physical tests will then be conducted and analyzed, with the results being used to develop recommendations as appropriate to improve the analysis and design methodologies. |