Development of a ductile steel bridge substructure system

• Directly welding piles to cap beam results in limited ductility capacity.
• The gusseted (kerf) connection exhibits limited ductility capacity.
• The reduced section column capital provides a ductile connection.
• The grouted shear stud connection enables ductile structural response.

Described in this paper is the evaluation of a series of design concepts which attempt to improve the inelastic cyclic response of steel bridge substructures. The bridge system under consideration consists of hollow circular steel piles welded to steel cap beams. Described first is the motivation for the use of this type of structure, followed by a discussion of the research methods which include large scale reversed cyclic testing supplemented by finite element analysis. Next, the performance of the current as-built system, the fillet welded connection, is evaluated. This connection is shown to perform poorly with little inelastic deformation capacity prior to failure. A variety of alternative connections are then proposed and evaluated. These alternative connections include modified weld detailing and plastic hinge relocation approaches. Alternative weld detailing focuses on the complete joint penetration weld with reinforcing fillet welds. The plastic hinge relocation alternatives include a gusseted connection, a reduced column section, and the recently proposed grouted shear stud (GSS) connection. Alternative weld details produce only slight improvement in performance. Of the plastic hinge relocation concepts, the grouted shear stud (GSS) connection offers the most promising approach to improve inelastic cyclic response.