Seismic performance of prestressed high strength concrete piles

The main objective of this research is to evaluate the performance of prestressed high strength concrete (PHC) piles, concerning ductility and strength. The test results of four PHC piles under low cycle loading and two piles under monotonic flexural loading are presented in this paper, including the test phenomena, failure modes, hysteretic performances, ductility, bearing capacities and load-displacement curves. The variables studied in this research are the diameter of piles, steel ratio and prestress. From the result, it is indicated that the failure mode is bending damage. That is to say PHC piles have minimal energy-absorbing hysteretic behaviour, and the hysteretic loops are pinched. They will fail suddenly and violently with the loss of most of their lateral resistance. It is clear that the use of PHC pile in seismic applications should be approached with caution. The finite element software ABAQUS was used to simulate the nonlinear behaviour of piles under monotonic loading. Comparison between analytical and experimental results showed that the proposed modelling technique is capable of accurately describing the behaviour of piles.