Development of fully dry-connection for prefabricated hollow section CA-RPC pier

To facilitate accelerated bridge construction, a dry-connection was proposed for the prefabricated hollow section coarse aggregate reactive powder concrete (CA-RPC) pier. An enlarged part was designed at the bottom of the pier to tolerate 24 high-strength prestressed reinforcement (HSPR), which were anchored in the cap. By apply the prestress in the HSPR, the prefabricated pier could be fixed on the cap and transfer axial load, shear force and bending moment. To explore the performance of the novel dry-connection, a full-size specimen underwent a pseudo-static test, and specimen delivered satisfactory stiffness, strength and ductility, which was comparable to the in-site casting pier. The failure mode of the specimen and the strain development of the HSPR verify the reliability of the dry-connection. An analytical model was proposed to describe the performance of dry-connected pier. Finally, the design suggestion was derived to guarantee the ductility of the dry-connected hollow CA-RPC pier.