STABILITY ANALYSIS OF HIGH-RISE PIERS CONSIDERING CONSTRUCTION DEFECTS AND INITIAL ECCENTRICITY

The stability of two typical thin-wall and high-rise piers of Jing River Bridge was analyzed by finite element method. The results show that the stability safety factors including the effect of geometrical nonlinearity are less than linear elastic stability factors by 31% to 36%. In practical design, geometrical nonlinearity should be considered in stability analysis of high-rise piers. Stability safety factors of the pier decrease with the increase of depth and width of construction defects. The increase of the depth of the construction defects has larger effect on the decrease of the structural stability than the increase of the height of the construction defects. In addition, the construction defects near the bottom of the pier have larger unfavorable influence on the structural stability than that near the top of the pier. Stability safety factors of piers gradually decrease with the increase of the initial eccentricity at the top section of the piers.