Seismic shear behavior of rectangular hollow bridge columns

An analytical model incorporating bending and shear behavior is presented t o predict the lateral loading characteristic for rectangular hollow columns . The moment-curvature relationship for the rectangular hollow sections of a column is firstly determined. Then the nonlinear lateral load-displacemen t relationship for the hollow column can be obtained accordingly. In this m odel, thirteen constitutive laws for confined concrete and five approaches to estimate the shear capacity are used. A series of tests on 12 model holl ow columns aimed at the seismic shear behavior are reported, and the test d ata arc compared to the analytical results. It is found that the analytical model reflects the experimental results rather closely.