Highway Bridge Pier Structure Analysis

As main load-bearing structure of the bridge, the safety performance of bridge pier isfollowed closely by designers and researchers. The appearance of Column pier is artistic andless masonry volume, and it is now widely used in the highway bridge design because of themature and convenient construction method, twin circular column pier is the most commonused in the highway bridge design. According our Highway bridge and culvert designspecifications, there is no sectional size for the pier structure, the majority design firms applytheir own conventional designs which are conservative and uneconomical, and so there aregreat differences in the sectional dimension of piers designed by different designers. There isa huge significance in designing reasonable pier structures and sectional dimensions.This paper analyses the conditions of different pier structures and the design differencesmade by different design firms on the similar height of pier designing according to the surveystatistics which are based on the widely research and investigation of the pier structure ofChangTong Highway and DeShang GanCong Highway. In addition, combining with the builtand constructing highway high pier structure, common pier structure is analyzed andcalculated by using the finite element software Midas-civil. In statics aspect,this paperanalysis the factors of the pier cross-section size, cross section reinforcement, column pierheight in affecting bearing capacity of twin circular column pier, and compare with thebearing capacity between the column pier structure and thin wall pier structure.Pier structure is usually eccentric compression structure, which stability is crucial. In thedynamic aspect, this paper introduces the solutions and differences of two types of thestability issue, comparing and analyzing the stability of the column pier and thin wall pierunder single pier and bridge condition. Integrating loading-bearing contrast result, this paperconcludes the optimal dimension of the twin circular column pier and extends the range of usefor column pier by auto oscillation analysis of column pier and thin wall pier structure,meanwhile, stability comparison and analysis of them at different heights.Integrating the loading-bearing and stability contrast research result of two different pierstructures, proposing the serviceable range of pier structure type from an economic point ofview, we can alter the regular pier (thin-walled pier) for35to40meters to column pier.