Effect of Replacing Concrete with Elastomeric Pad on Seismic Behavior of Circular RC Bridge Pier

The novel concept of this study is to investigate the effect of replacing concrete with elastomeric pad on drift andstrain energy absorption of RC bridge pier using finite element method. A total seven concrete bridge piers wereanalyzed in nonlinear finite element software. The foundation bottom surface of pier was subjected to the velocity ofKobe earthquake and a constant axial load was applied on the top of pier. The gravity force due to gravityacceleration was also considered. Dimensions, boundary and loading conditions were the same for all of sevenmodels. Material of one model was completely concrete while the other six models included an elastomeric pad withdifferent thicknesses and placements. In three models, thickness of elastomeric pad varied from 510 mm to 120 cmwhile in the other three models an elastomeric pad with 510 mm thickness was situated to three different places ofthe piers. The results showed that the best thickness of the elastomeric pad is 32 percent of gross pier length at thepoint of column-foundation connection.