AN ANALYTICAL STUDY INTO THE SEISMIC BEHAVIOR OF RC PIER WITH ELASTOMERIC MATERIALS

Corrosion of reinforcement bars, large base shear due to earthquake load and tensile defect of concrete are the most important failure factors in an RC column. This paper investigates using elastomeric materials in a RC pier to diminish or even eliminate above-mentioned factors. For this purpose, totally seven numerical piers under Kobe earthquake load and constant axial load were modeled in nonlinear finite element software. Elastomeric material was used in plastic hinge zone of RC pier in different heights and thicknesses. Base shear and ductility of piers were evaluated. Results generally showed that, using elastomeric material in a RC pier reduced ductility but it will decreased base shear force in size of 10.61 percent. The other advantage of using elastomeric material is to eliminate concrete tensile defect in tension surface of pier section and reinforcement bars corrosion due to concrete cover ruin in corrosive environment.