Structural performance of hammerhead pier under eccentric loads: strut-and-tie modeling, finite element method, and full-scale experimental study

Hammerhead pier is the preferred option in many bridge sites for its limited ground occupation. Since the bearing reactions act on the short cantilever ends of the cap beam, it is usually treated as stress-disturbed region (D region) in structural concrete. Although finite element model (FEM) can predict the response of such structures, the calculation efficiency will be sharply decreased once it enters nonlinearity. Therefore, strut-and-tie model (STM) has been promoted as an alternative approach for analyzing D regions. In this study, a loading pattern was defined to relate the axial force and bending moment of the pier column with the eccentric load ratio. Sectional analysis method and associated codes were developed to generate the STM. In addition, a full-scale hammerhead pier specimen subject to varying eccentric loads was tested. Besides, nonlinear FEM was also established to numerically investigate the response of the pier. The results indicate that the proposed STM has general applicability for modeling the hammerhead pier and shows better prediction than the FEM. The failure pattern of the hammerhead pier with a prefabricated cap beam was defined. Combining the mechanical analysis of STM and experimental results, the recommended design details for hammerhead piers were proposed.