Optimal Design of Connection Details of Steep Cap Beam and Concrete Pier Column Based on Integral Joint Concept
The steel cap beam and concrete pier column are usually socket-connected and encased with concrete,however the abrupt stiffness change,notable stress concentration as well as challenging positioning accuracy are still critical issues related with this type of connection.To address these issues,an optimized steel socket connection is proposed,which is developed from the integral joint concept.With the case of portal-frame pier,the steel cap beam and the webs of the steel socket are designed as integral gusset,the steel cap beam and stiffeners in the flanges of steel socket are arranged in line,and the cast-in-situ joint are placed on the side of steel cap beam.Based on the ramp bridge of a highway project,numerical simulation was carried out to compare the load bearing behaviors of the portal-frame piers when using the conventional and optimized connections,respectively.Subsequently,the optimized connection has been applied to real project.It is shown that the optimized connection transfers loads smoothly and leaves lower stress concentration in the structure,indicating an effective configuration.The optimized connection is easy to be constructed and reveals a better fault tolerance,and will get wide application in the future.
bridge engineeringportal-frame piersteel cap beamconcrete pier columnpier column connectionstructural optimizationfinite element method