7.

5 CAPACITY DESIGN OF PIERS

7.5.1 Member Actions for Single- and Multi-Column Piers Using Capacity Design Principles
The principles of capacity design require that the members that are not part of the primary
energydissipating system have strengths equal to or greater than the overstrength capacity of the primary
energydissipating members (e.g. columns with plastic hinges at their ends). Therefore, one of the first
things that must be done is to determine the magnitudes and distributions of the internal forces that
accompany the overstrength forces.
This requires either a pushover analysis or a partial pushover
of
the
bridge
or
piers
to
establish
the
forces
present
when
a plastic
mechanism
has
formed
and
the
full
overstrength
capacities
of
the
yielding
elements
has
developed,
as shown
in
Figure
7-5.
This
process
was
described
in
Section 6.4.4 in the previous chapter.
These plastic mechanism forces should not calculated using elastic analysis, because redistribution of the
internal forces may occur as a full plastic forms. This is particularly the case when more than one plastic

hinge must form and where overturning changes the axial forces on the columns, which then change the
yield moments according to the P-M interaction relationship. Both the LRFD Specifications and Guide
Specifications contain detailed procedures for accomplishing this determination of the full plastic
mechanism condition.
A detail to consider is the location of the plastic hinge when assessing this plastic mechanism. With the
FBM an actual length of the plastic hinge is never calculated for the purposes of analyzing the structure.
However, in the DBM a plastic hinge length is calculated as described in Chapter 6. When performing
the partial pushover analysis described above, the designer must select the location of the overstrength
moments in the columns. With the FBM this has traditionally been taken at the top of foundation or soffit
of the cap beam. The corresponding plastic shears then are calculated with the sum of these two moments
divided by the distance between them, the clear height of the column. The Guide Specifications, using a
figure similar to Figure 7-5, show the length as the clear height minus half the plastic hinge length on
each end. This is conservative since the length is shorter than the clear height, producing a larger plastic
shear. However, recall that the components of the plastic hinge length, as described in Chapter 6, include
a length of plasticity (bar yielding) that spreads along the member and a strain penetration length that
extends back into the adjacent member. These lengths often are similar to one another; thus realistically
the location of the center of the plastic hinge is very near the end of the member. Therefore, the use of the