STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOR OF REPAIRED PIER WALLS

Six one-half-scale cantilevered pier walls were loaded in the weak direction under cyclic loading and taken to (near) destruction. Five of the damaged pier walls were repaired with two alternating crossties at each crosstie location, whereas one of the damaged pier walls was repaired with T-headed reinforcing bars in place of regular crossties. The six repaired pier walls were retested under the same test protocol as the original samples to compare their performance. Whereas a regular crosstie restrains the longitudinal steel against the core, a T-headed reinforcing bar provides confinement by the heads of the reinforcing bars bearing directly against the concrete. This additional confinement provides a partial explanation of why the T-headed reinforcing bars provided better structural performance in the one repaired pier wall than five other pier walls repaired with the crossties. The experimental setup and the results are also presented. Findings suggest that repairing damaged pier walls may be a cost-effective alternative to demolition and replacement.