Response of perforated H-pile subjected to coupled lateral displacement history and axial loading

Abstract

The substructure of an integral abutment bridge is designed to accommodate the lateral demand induced by the expansion and contraction of the bridge deck. The assembly of H-piles oriented about their weak axis of bending and aligned in a single row with a rigid connection to the abutment is most preferred for supporting the integral abutment bridges. The weak axis orientation of H-pile allows for higher displacement capacity, thus accommodating the cyclic thermal demand induced by a superstructure. The hysteretic response of H-piles is suggestive of the early onset of the plastic hinge formation, which helps in accommodating the cyclic demand. The H-piles in the integral abutment bridge experience low cycle fatigue induced by cyclic thermal variations, resulting in the buckling of flanges at the critical zone. This study assesses the impact of perforation made on H-pile flanges at the critical buckling zone. In this study, six unique geometries of perforations are modelled and analysed using combined nonlinear kinematic and isotropic hardening formulation. The hysteretic response of the perforated H-pile models has been compared with an unperforated model to assess the proposed perforation geometry's impact on the H-pile's hysteretic response.