Active Confinement of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Columns

Using Shape Memory Alloys

Bassem Andrawes, A.M.ASCE1; Moochul Shin2; and Nicholas Wierschem3

Abstract: This paper presents experimental and analytical work conducted to explore the feasibility of using an innovative technique for
seismic retrofitting of RC bridge columns using shape memory alloys 共SMAs兲 spirals. The high recovery stress associated with the shape
recovery of SMAs is being sought in this study as an easy and reliable method to apply external active confining pressure on RC bridge
columns to improve their ductility. Uniaxial compression tests of concrete cylinders confined with SMA spirals show a significant
improvement in the concrete strength and ductility even under small confining pressure. The experimental results are used to calibrate
the concrete constitutive model used in the analytical study. Analytical models of bridge columns retrofitted with SMA spirals and carbon
fiber-reinforced polymer 共CFRP兲 sheets are studied under displacement-controlled cyclic loading and a suite of strong earthquake records.
The analytical results proves the superiority of the proposed technique using SMA spirals to CFRP sheets in terms of enhancing the
strength and effective stiffness and reducing the concrete damage and residual drifts of retrofitted columns.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲BE.1943-5592.0000038
CE Database subject headings: Bridges, concrete; Concrete columns; Confinement; Ductility; Shape memory effect; Seismic effects.
Author keywords: Bridges; Concrete columns; Confinement; Ductility; Shape memory alloys; Seismic retrofitting; Spirals.

Introduction
Many of the catastrophic bridge failures that occurred during past
earthquakes were due to the failure of one or more of the RC
columns. The lessons learned from previous earthquakes such as
the 1971 San Fernando earthquake, the 1989 Loma Prieta earth-
quake, the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and the 1995 Kobe, Japan
earthquake have demonstrated the vulnerability of our existing
bridge columns to moderate-to-strong ground motions. Such
events motivated many researchers to conduct investigations on
the reasons behind RC bridge column damage and failure during
earthquakes. After more than three decades it has been proven
with no doubt that most of the pier damage observed in past
earthquakes was due to inadequate flexural ductility, and insuffi-
cient shear capacity 共Chai et al. 1991; Priestley et al. 1994;
Maekawa and An 2000兲. These two problems are typically ex-
pected in bridges built according to old seismic provisions. The
lack of flexural ductility problem is common in bridge piers with
relatively large aspect ratio 共i.e., length-to-depth ratio兲 where
large displacement demands are imposed by the ground motion.
1
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 205 North Mathews Ave.,
Urbana, IL 61801 共corresponding author兲. E-mail: andrawes@illinois.edu
2
Graduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 205 North Mathews
Ave., Urbana, IL 61801.
3
Graduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 205 North Mathews
Ave., Urbana, IL 61801.
Note. This manuscript was submitted on November 13, 2008; ap-
proved on April 3, 2009; published online on December 15, 2009. Dis-
cussion period open until June 1, 2010; separate discussions must be
submitted for individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of
Bridge Engineering, Vol. 15, No. 1, January 1, 2010. ©ASCE, ISSN
1084-0702/2010/1-81–89/$25.00.
The insufficient ductility arises from two main sources: 共1兲 insuf-
ficient transverse reinforcement, which results in lack of confine-
ment and 共2兲 inadequate lap splice length in the plastic hinge
zone. Fig. 1 shows the damage experienced by one of freeway
support columns under the Simi Valley Freeway at the north end
of the San Fernando Valley during the 1994 Northridge earth-
quake. The freeway was built prior to 1971 and hence experi-
enced severe damage in the form of buckling of longitudinal
reinforcement and crushing of concrete due to inadequate core
confinement. It has been proven that the ductility capacity of
concrete members is enhanced dramatically when the core of
the concrete section is confined 共Mander et al. 1988兲. Passive
confinement of concrete using external steel jackets or fiber-
reinforced polymer 共FRP兲 wraps is the most common approach
used to enhance the ductility capacity of vulnerable columns
共Chai et al. 1991; Priestley et al. 1994; Mirmiran and Shahawy
1997; Li and Sung 2004; Haroun et al. 2005兲. Although the pas-
sive confinement approach has been widely accepted and used all
over the world, research has shown that better results could be
obtained by applying external confining pressure on the concrete
element, a technique that is often referred to as active confine-
ment 共Richart et al. 1928兲.
There have been a number of studies that focused on exploring
the effect of active confinement on the material level experimen-
tally 共Krstulovic-Opara and Thiedeman 2000; Hussain and Driver
2005兲. Other studies attempted to describe analytically the consti-
tutive behavior of concrete when subjected to active confinement
共Malvar et al. 2004; Cho et al. 2005兲. There have also been a
number of studies that attempted to explore the feasibility of
using active confinement for seismic retrofit of concrete elements.
Some of these studies 共Gamble et al. 1996; Saatcioglu and Yalcin
2003兲 investigated using lateral prestressed steel strands to apply
active confinement, while others 共Yamakawa et al. 2004; Nesheli
and Meguro 2006兲 attempted using prestressed FRP belts. The
results of these studies have shown that shear failure was pre-
vented and flexural behavior of retrofitted columns was improved.

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Fig. 1. Damage occurred to one of the freeway support columns
under the Simi Valley Freeway at the north end of the San Fernando
Valley during the 1994 Northridge earthquake
Despite the advantages of the active confinement technique, its
practical applications had been hindered by many challenges re-
lated to the technique used in applying the confining pressure in
the site. This paper introduces a new technique for applying ac-
tive confinement on RC bridge columns in an easy and effective
manner using shape memory alloys 共SMAs兲. The efficacy of the
new technique was investigated in this paper experimentally and
analytically and compared with that of the more traditional con-
fining technique using carbon FRP 共CFRP兲 wraps.
Shape Memory Alloys
SMAs are a class of metallic alloys known for their unique ther-
momechanical characteristics such as superelasticity and shape
memory effect. SMAs exhibit unique capability of recovering
their original shape after being deformed. This capability is pri-
marily due to the forward and reverse transformation between two
main phases on the atomic level 共austenite and martensite兲. Fig. 2
shows the variation of the martensite fraction in the alloy with
temperature. As shown in the figure, four transformation tempera-
tures 共M f , M s, As, and A f 兲 govern the amount of martensite in the
alloy, which accordingly controls the alloy’s mechanical behavior.
In the last four decades, a large number of researches have been
conducted to examine the shape memory phenomenon in the
Ni–Ti alloy 共Miyazaki and Otsuka 1986; Hartl et al. 2006兲. These
studies showed that a martensite Ni–Ti alloy with martensite fin-
Fig. 2. Variation of martensite fraction of SMAs with temperature
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Confined
Section
SMA
Before Heating After Heating
Fig. 3. Schematic illustrating the concept of using prestrained SMA
hoops to apply external confining pressure on RC bridge columns
ish temperature 共M f 兲 higher than the ambient temperature would
typically exhibits a plastic behavior with large residual strain 共see
Fig. 2兲. If the alloy was heated to a temperature above the auste-
nite finish temperature 共A f 兲 the original shape of the alloy will be
fully recovered. This shape recovery is associated with a rela-
tively large recovery stress that depends on the material charac-
teristics and level of deformation exerted on the alloy 共Mellor
1987; Otsuka and Wayman 2002; Vokoun et al. 2003兲. This study
aims at exploiting the high recovery stresses of SMAs to apply
external active confining pressure on RC bridge columns. The
proposed concept is illustrated in Fig. 3 where hoops or spirals
made of 100% martensite SMAs will be prestrained and wrapped
around the RC column then heated. Since the SMA wire is re-
strained, it will apply external confining pressure on the column.
Experimental Study
The first phase in this study was to investigate experimentally the
SMAs recovery stress and the uniaxial compression behavior of
concrete cylinders confined with SMA wires. The data obtained
from these tests were used in the analytical phase of the study.
SMA Recovery Stress Test
A 3-mm-diameter Ni–Ti martensite round wire was used in this
phase of the study. The transformation temperatures of the wire
provided by the manufacturer were M f = 31.8° C, M s = 59.2° C,
As = 41.1° C, and A f = 80.1° C. It should be noted that a NiTi alloy
with such transformation temperatures would typically lose most
of its recovery stress at room temperature and thus would need to
be continuously heated; which is unpractical for passive control
applications. This type of SMAs was only used to demonstrate
and prove the proposed concept. However, there are other types
of SMAs such as the NiTiNb alloy that would be suitable for real
applications since it is characterized by a wide thermal hysteresis
that prevents the alloy from losing its recovery stress at typical
ambient temperatures. It is important to note though that concep-
tually, both NiTi and NiTiNb alloys are capable of developing the
same confining pressure on the columns, which would make their
impact on the column’s cyclic behavior very similar.
A thermomechanical test using the 222 kN uniaxial hydraulic
loading frame shown in Fig. 4 was conducted to determine the
relationship between the recovery stress developed in the wire
and the alloy’s temperature. In this test, a prestrained SMA wire
was placed in the load frame and restrained at both ends by the

Fig. 4. SMA wire restrained by the loading frame during the recov-
ery stress test
loading frame grips. The wire was then heated to a temperature
above A f using an electric power source which was connected to
the wire. The reaction force from the restrained shape memory
effect was measured continuously during the process. Fig. 5
shows the results from the recovery stress test. In this figure, the
wire was initially at room temperature. At a time of 35 s, the
electric current provided to the wire was turned on, which re-
sulted in an immediate increase in the wire stress. The wire heat-
ing continued with the same current 共23 A兲 until reaching a
temperature of approximately 130° C. After which, the tempera-
ture was fixed by adjusting the current. The average recovery
stress after the temperature was fixed was 865 MPa.
Concrete Cylinder Test
The aim of this test was to compare the uniaxial compressive
behavior of unconfined and SMA-confined concrete cylinders.
The concrete cylinders used in this study had a diameter of 152
mm and a length of 305 mm. The cylinders were cast in house
and cured in a moisture-controlled environment. The confined
cylinder was wrapped with the prestrained 3-mm-diamater SMA
Fig. 5. Recovery stress in the SMA wire during the recovery stress
test
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Fig. 6. Prepared specimen confined with SMA spiral
wire in the form of 12-loop spiral 共see Fig. 6兲. This spiral was
attached to the cylinder with a closed loop of wire at the top and
bottom. A 2.7 MN uniaxial servocontrolled hydraulic frame was
used to perform the axial compression tests on the cylinders. The
cylinders were instrumented with averaging and radial extensom-
eters to measure the axial and radial strains, respectively. A ther-
mocouple was attached to a small section of the wire to monitor
the temperature in the SMA spiral. The cylinders were placed in
the loading frame and the SMA spiral was heated to approxi-
mately 130° C. The cylinder was then loaded at a rate of 0.76
mm/min until failure. Fig. 7 presents the axial stress versus radial
and axial strains relationships in the unconfined and confined cyl-
inders. From the figure it could be observed that the confined
specimen had a 15% and 310% increase in the compressive
strength and ultimate strain, respectively compared to the uncon-
fined specimen.
Analytical Model Calibration
The experimental results obtained from the cylinder tests were
used to calibrate the analytical model used in the analytical phase
of this study. In this paper, the analytical stress-strain model de-
Fig. 7. Stress versus radial and axial strain for both confined and
unconfined concrete cylinders
veloped by Mander et al. 共1988兲 for concrete confined with lateral
steel reinforcement was extended and used to describe the effect
of active confinement provided by exterior SMA reinforcement.
The extension was based on the fact that in their model, Mander
et al. assumed a constant confinement pressure resulting from the
yielding of the steel lateral reinforcement. In this study, this con-
stant confinement pressure was taken as the lateral pressure ex-
erted on the cylinder due to the recovery stress of the SMA wire.
This lateral confining pressure could be calculated using the fol-
lowing equation:
2Af SMA
fl =
d·s
where A = cross-sectional area of the SMA wire; f SMA = recovery
stress in the SMA wire; d = diameter of the cylinder; and s
= spiral pitch spacing. The spacing between the SMA wires results
in a reduced confining pressure, which according to the model of
Mander et al. could be calculated as follows:
f l⬘ = ke f l
where f l⬘ = modified 共effective兲 confining pressure and ke
= effective confinement coefficient, which could be calculated
using the following equation:
s⬘
1−
2ds
ke =
1 − ␳cc
where s⬘ = clear spacing between spiral wires and ␳cc
= longitudinal reinforcement ratio. The effective lateral pressure
can then be used to calculate the confined compressive strength
f ⬘cc as follows:
冉 冑
7.94f l⬘
f ⬘cc = f ⬘co − 1.254 + 2.254 1+ −2
f ⬘co
where f ⬘co = unconfined concrete compressive strength. The strain
␧cc corresponding to the confined compressive strength is com-
puted as follows:
冋 冉 冊册
␧cc = ␧co 1 + 5
f ⬘cc
f ⬘co
−1
where ␧co = strain corresponding to the unconfined compressive
strength. The entire stress-strain curve of the confined concrete
can be determined using the following formula:
冉 冊
␧c
f ⬘ccr
␧cc
冉 冊
fc =
␧c r
r−1+
␧cc
where f c = arbitrary stress and ␧c = corresponding strain, and
r = Ec / 共Ec − Esec兲, where Ec is the initial modulus of elasticity of
the concrete and Esec is the secant modulus at the confined com-
pressive strength.
In this study, the effective confining pressure f l⬘ was deter-
mined by using a trial and error approach to match the curve
created using the theoretical model of Mander et al. to the ex-
perimentally produced stress-strain curve. Once the effective
confining stress is determined, the recovery stress f SMA can be
determined using Eq. 共1兲. Fig. 8 shows a comparison between the
experimental and analytical stress-strain curves for the unconfined
and confined cases. The calibrated analytical curve representing
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共1兲
Fig. 8. Experimental and analytical stress-strain results for SMA-
confined and unconfined concrete cylinders
the confined case was found to be corresponding to an effective
confinement and recovery stresses of 903 KPa and 255 MPa,
共2兲 respectively. The recovery stress obtained from the calibration
process was well below the potential recovery stress shown in
Fig. 5. The low state of recovery stress was primarily attributed to
the prestrain losses encountered due to the slack between the
SMA spiral and the exterior of the concrete cylinder. In addition,
possible slippage of the SMA wire at the top and bottom connec-
tions could have lead to additional prestrain losses. Although an
共3兲 increase in the effective confinement pressure and recovery
stresses could be attained by reducing the prestrain losses, the
255 MPa recovery stress obtained from this study was used dur-
ing the analytical section of the paper.
冊
Bridge Column Model
f l⬘
共4兲
f ⬘co
Model Description
The efficacy of using the SMAs confinement technique in bridge
columns was examined analytically by analyzing the cyclic and
seismic behavior of RC bridge columns retrofitted with SMA spi-
共5兲
rals. The finite element program OpenSees was used in the study.
In order to validate the analytical bridge column model, the RC
column tested by Kawashima et al. 共2001兲 was adopted. In their
study, Kawashima et al. tested a series of CFRP wrapped columns
under quasi-static cyclic loading. Schematics showing the
adopted bridge column and its analytical model are presented in
Fig. 9. Table 1 also presents a summary of the column’s proper-
ties and dimensions. As illustrated in the figure and table, the
column had a circular section with a diameter equal to 400 mm
共6兲 and a concrete cover of 35 mm. The effective height of the
column was 1,350 mm and the length of the confined region
where the CFRP sheets were applied was 1,000 mm from the
base. An axial compression load of 185 kN representing 5%
of the column capacity was applied at the top of the column. The
compressive strength of the unconfined concrete was 30 MPa and
the yield strength of the longitudinal and lateral steel reinforce-
ments were 374 and 363 MPa, respectively. The OpenSees non-
linear displacement-based beam-column element was used to
develop the analytical model of the column at the confined region
关Element E1, Element E2, and Element E3 in Fig. 9共b兲兴 and the
footing 共Element E4兲. A fiber section was assigned to the beam-
column elements to describe their nonlinear behavior. In the fiber
section, different constitutive relations are used for the cover con-
crete, core concrete, and steel reinforcement fibers. An elastic
 400mm

Lateral Load

E2

E5
Deck
E4
E3
Footing E2
D = 330 mm

D = 400 mm E1

1150mm

(a) Tested column (b) Analytical column

Fig. 9. Schematic of the column tested by Kawashima et al. 共2001兲

and its analytical model Fig. 10. Comparison between the analytical and experimental force-
displacement results

beam-column element was used for the remaining part of the

and 共8兲 to compute the stress f ⬘cc and strain ␧cc values, respec-
column 共Element E5兲. A uniaxial material model with isotropic
tively at the point where the concrete modulus of elasticity starts
strain hardening 共Steel02兲 was used to describe the behavior of
degrading
the longitudinal reinforcement. A mass of 18,858 kg was lumped
at the top of the column. f ⬘cc = f ⬘co + 1.93␳CF · ␧CFt · ECF + 2.2␳S · f yh 共7兲
The analytical model developed by Mander et al. 共1988兲 which
was discussed earlier was used to describe the unaxial stress- ␳CF · ␧CFt · ECF ␳S f yh
strain behavior of concrete confined with: 共1兲 internal steel ties ␧cc = ␧co + 0.00939 + 0.0107 共8兲
f ⬘co f ⬘co
only 共as-built case兲 and 共2兲 external SMA spirals plus internal
steel ties 共SMA retrofitted case兲. Since one of the primary goals of where f ⬘co and ␧co = strength and strain of the unconfined concrete
this study was to compare the efficacy of the SMA and CFRP at the peak point; ␳CF = volumetric ratio of the CFRP sheets;
retrofitted columns, adopting a constitutive relationship which is ␧CFt = spherical strain of CFRP sheets at the point where the
capable of describing the uniaxial stress-strain behavior of the modulus of the confined concrete starts degrading 共1,800–
concrete when confined with external CFRP sheets and internal 1,900␮兲; ECF = elastic modulus of CFRP sheets, which in this
steel ties 共CFRP retrofitted case兲 was essential. In this study, the study was taken as 230 GPa; ␳s = volumetric ratio of transverse
experimental-based analytical model developed by Kawashima reinforcement; and f yh = yield strength of the transverse reinforce-
et al. 共2001兲 was used. A description of the model is presented in ment. The concrete modulus during the strain hardening Eg and
the following subsection. the ultimate strain of the concrete ␧cu could be computed using
the following equations:
CFRP Confined Concrete Model f ⬘co2
Eg = − 0.658 + 0.078冑␳CF · ECF
Previous studies have shown that concrete confined with external ␳CF · ␧CFt · ECF + 0.098␳s f yh
CFRP sheets exhibits a stress-strain behavior with an ascending 共9兲
branch followed by either a descending or ascending branch with
reduced modulus depending on the wraps volumetric ratio
共Mirmiran and Shahawy 1997; Saiidi et. al 2005; Carey and
Harries 2005兲. When the CFRP sheets reach their ultimate strain
␧cu = 0.00383 + 0.1014 冉 ␳CF · f CF
f ⬘co
冊冉 冊
3/4
f CF
ECF
1/2
共10兲

they rupture suddenly causing the concrete to fail in a brittle where f CF = ultimate strength of the CFRP sheets. The values ob-
manner. Kawashima et al. 共2001兲 developed an experimental- tained from Eqs. 共7兲–共10兲 were implemented into the finite ele-
based model to describe this behavior. They suggested Eqs. 共7兲 ment program OpenSees. The Concrete01 uniaxial material from
the OpenSees material library was used after being modified to
account for the rupture of the CFRP sheets. After CFRP rupture, a
residual stress equal to 20% of the ultimate strength f ⬘cu was as-
Table 1. Material Properties Used in the RC Column Adopted in the
Study sumed. In the case of cover concrete, this residual stress was
eliminated.
Property Value
Section diameter 共mm兲 400 Analytical Model Validation
Effective height, h共mm兲 1,350
Longitudinal reinforcement ratio 共%兲 1.89 The bridge column model used in this study was validated by
Volumetric ratio of tie reinforcement 共%兲 0.13 comparing its behavior with the experimental behavior reported
Compressive strength of concrete 共MPa兲 30.0
by Kawashima et al. 共2001兲 for a column wrapped with one layer
of CFRP, which represents a volumetric ratio of 0.11%. The ana-
Longitudinal reinforcement Yield strength⫽374 MPa
lytical model was subjected to the same displacement-controlled
Tie reinforcement Yield strength⫽363 MPa
cyclic loading protocol that was used during the test. The column
Axial force 共kN兲 185
was displaced with an increment of 0.5%-drift until reaching a

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Table 2. Properties of the CFRP Sheets and SMA Spirals Used in the
Three Studied Cases
Case number Case I Case II Case III
Number of CFRP wraps 1 2 3
␳CF 共%兲 0.11 0.22 0.33
Thickness of CFRP wraps 共mm兲 0.11 0.22 0.33
Confining pressure 共MPa兲 1.2 2.4 3.6
Diameter of SMA wires 共mm兲 10 10 10
SMA spiral patch spacing 共mm兲 76 40 27

maximum drift of 5%. Fig. 10 shows a comparison between the

force-displacement relationships resulting from the analysis and
experiment. The figure shows that the analytical model was ca-
pable of capturing the behavior of the experimental column
throughout the loading protocol with an acceptable level of accu-
racy in terms of strength and stiffness. Only 4% difference was
observed between the peak strength values of the analytical and
experimental columns.

Analytical Study

The developed column model was used to conduct a comparison

between the efficacy of SMA spirals and CFRP wraps in improv-
ing the behavior of RC columns under cyclic and seismic load-
ings. The amount of confinement of the CFRP retrofitted columns
was varied by using one, two, and three 0.11-mm-thick CFRP
wraps, which correspond to a volumetric ratio of 0.11, 0.22, and
0.33%, respectively. Similarly, the amount of SMA confinement
Fig. 12. Axial stress versus strain of concrete core and longitudinal
steel of the SMA and CFRP retrofitted columns under cyclic loading
was varied by changing the pitch spacing of the SMA spiral. In
order to provide a common base for the comparison between the
two retrofitting techniques, the amount of active confining pres-
sure provided by the SMA spiral was taken equal to the passive
confining pressure provided by the CFRP wraps just before their
rupture. Table 2 shows the number of CFRP wraps, CFRP volu-
metric ratio, SMA spiral pitch spacing, and lateral confining pres-
sure corresponding to each of the three studied cases.

Cyclic Loading Analysis

Fig. 11. Force-displacement relationship of the SMA and CFRP ret-
rofitted columns under cyclic loading
The studied columns were subjected to a displacement-controlled
cyclic loading with a 0.5%-drift increment until reaching a maxi-
mum drift of 8%. Fig. 11 shows the force-displacement relation-
ship of the CFRP and SMA retrofitted columns in Case I, Case II,
and Case III. As shown in the figure, in all three cases, the col-
umns wrapped with SMAs showed superior behavior to CFRP
wrapped columns in terms of load-carrying capacity. The SMA
retrofitted columns were able to maintain their load-carrying ca-
pacity until the end of the loading protocol, while the CFRP
retrofitted columns confined with one, two, and three wraps of
CFRP started loosing their capacity at drift values of 3, 4, and
5%, respectively. These drift values correspond to where the
CFRP sheets started experiencing significant rupture. At the point
of maximum lateral drift 共8%-dift兲, a closer comparison reveals
an increase in the peak strength of the SMA wrapped columns
relative to the CFRP wrapped columns by 38, 33, and 26% in
Case I, Case II, and Case III, respectively.
In order to obtain a better understanding of the level of dam-
age exerted on the analyzed columns, a comparison between the
concrete and longitudinal steel stress-strain behaviors using SMA
spirals and CFRP wraps is presented in Fig. 12. In all three cases
共I, II, and III兲 applying active confinement using SMA spirals
resulted in an early increase in the concrete compressive strength

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Table 3. Characteristics of the Six Ground Motion Records Used in the Study
Before After
Magnitude scaling PGA scaling PGA Sa
Earthquake Record station 共M s兲 共g兲 共g兲 共T1兲
1980, Victoria 6604 Cerro Prieto 6.4 0.62 0.99 0.94
1989, Loma Prieta 57217 Coyote Lake Dam 7.1 0.48 1.03 0.61
1994, Northridge 90014 Beverly Hills 6.7 0.62 0.70 1.32
1979, Imperial Valley 5115 El Centro Array #2 6.9 0.32 0.56 0.85
1992, Cape Mendocino 89324 Rio Dell Overpass 7.1 0.55 0.75 1.10
1980, Mammoth Lakes 54214 Long Valley Dam 6.0 0.92 1.30 1.07

compared to the case with CFRP sheets. This boost in strength
resulted in a significant reduction in the level of concrete damage,
which was assessed by the amount of reduction in the maximum
compressive strain. The reduction in concrete maximum strain in
Case I, Case II, and Case III was found to be 71, 71, and 67%,
respectively. The results presented in Fig. 12 also illustrate that
using active confinement reduced the deformation demands on
longitudinal steel reinforcements by 16, 12, and 8% in Case I,
Case II, and Case III, respectively.
Earthquake Loadings Analysis
The behaviors of the retrofitted columns were investigated under
a suite of six ground motion records from historic earthquakes.
Table 3 presents a summary of the characteristics of the records
used in the analysis. At the fundamental period of the column
共T1 = 0.18 s兲, the average spectral acceleration of the records was
found to be 0.98 g. In order to provide a common base for the
comparison between the behaviors of the columns under the six
records and to introduce a level of damage to the columns that
would make the option of retrofitting necessary and effective, the
records were scaled to a spectral acceleration value of 1.5 g at the
fundamental period of the column. The peak ground acceleration
共PGA兲 values before and after scaling are shown in Table 3.
Three types of response parameters were identified in this
study as the key factors that would define the efficacy of the
proposed SMA retrofitting technique. These response parameters
and their definitions are: 共1兲 column strength, represented by the
maximum lateral force resisted by the column at the point of
maximum drift; 共2兲 effective column stiffness, which is defined as
the secant stiffness at the point of maximum drift; and 共3兲 residual
column drift, which is defined as the lateral drift of the column at
the end of the record. A summary of the results of each of these
three response parameters under the six ground motion records
are presented in the following subsections.
Column Strength
Fig. 13 presents a comparison between the normalized strength
values of the columns wrapped with SMA spirals and CFRP
wraps under the six scaled records. The strength values were nor-
malized relative to the strength of the as-built column. The effect
of changing the level of confining pressure was included in the
figure by studying Case I, Case II, and Case III, which represent
different values for CFRP volumetric ratio and pitch spacing of
SMA spirals 共see Table 2兲. The results shown in the figure illus-
trate that in general, both SMA spirals and CFRP wraps were
effective in increasing the column strength compared to the as-
built case. However, the average increase in the strength in the
case of SMA spirals was 73%, while in the case of CFRP wraps
was only 39%. Comparing the results of Cases I, Case II, and
Case III shows that increasing the level of confinement tends to
reduce the difference between column strength observed using
both retrofitting techniques. This observation was expected since
the seismic demand was kept the same in all three cases. On
average, applying the active confinement technique using SMA
spirals increased the strength of studied columns by 25% com-
pared to passive confinement technique using CFRP wraps. The
superior performance of the SMA spirals relative to the CFRP
wraps could be attributed to the early increase in concrete
strength associated to active confinement. To demonstrate this
argument further, Fig. 14 is presented as an example of the force-
displacement relationships typically obtained from this analysis.
The behavior shown is for Case II under the scaled Coyote Lake

Fig. 14. Force-displacement relationship of Case II and as-built col-

Fig. 13. Normalized column strength using SMA spirals and CFRP umn under the scaled Coyote Lake Dam Station record from the 1989
wraps under the six earthquake records Loma Prieta earthquake

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Fig. 15. Normalized effective stiffness using SMA spirals and CFRP
wraps under the six earthquake records
Dam Station record from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The
behavior of the as-built column is also shown for comparison.
Effective Stiffness
The degradation in the structural effective stiffness is an indica-
tion of the amount of damage experienced by the structure during
the earthquake and thus is considered a key factor that defines the
seismic behavior of structures. Fig. 15 shows the normalized ef-
fective stiffness of studied RC columns when retrofitted with
SMA spirals and CFRP wraps and subjected to the suite of
records. In general, it could be observed that in all cases, the
effective stiffness of SMA retrofitted columns was higher than
that of CFRP wrapped columns. Considering the average of all
cases, using SMA spirals improved the effective strength by 34%
compared to CFRP wraps. This result demonstrates the superior-
ity of the SMA confining technique in limiting the progressive
damage in the retrofitted column. Taking a closer look at the
behaviors shown earlier in Fig. 14 reveals that such superiority
could be attributed to the significant damage encountered due to
CFRP rupture. In this particular case shown in Fig. 14, the effec-
tive stiffness of the CFRP wrapped column degraded by 34%
more than that of the SMA retrofitted column.
Residual Drift
Residual drift of bridge columns is an important factor that gov-
erns the functionality of the bridge after an earthquake. The nor-
malized residual drifts of the studied retrofitted columns under the
six ground motion records are depicted in Fig. 16. The average
residual drift of the SMA and CFRP retrofitted columns was 66
and 41% smaller than that of the as-built column, respectively. In
most of the cases shown in the figure, the SMA retrofitted col-
umns exhibited less residual drifts at the end of the records com-
pared to CFRP retrofitted columns. As illustrated earlier, this
behavior was expected due to the less demand exerted on the
concrete and reinforcing steel in the case of SMA retrofitted col-
umns which resulted in a reducing the level of inelastic 共perma-
nent兲 deformations compared to the CFRP case.
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Fig. 16. Normalized residual column drifts using SMA spirals and
CFRP wraps under the six earthquake records
Conclusions
The experimental and analytical work presented in this paper fo-
cused on exploring the feasibility of using an innovative tech-
nique for seismic retrofitting of RC bridge columns using spirals
made of SMAs. The new retrofitting technique will provide an
easy and reliable method for applying active confinement rather
than the traditionally used passive confinement technique. The
thermomechanical tests conducted on the 3 mm Ni–Ti wires
proved that the SMAs recovery stress could reach 865 MPa; a
relatively large stress considering the size of the wires. These
wires were used as spiral in a uniaxial compression test conducted
on a 152 mm⫻ 305 mm concrete cylinder. The confining pres-
sure produced by the 12-loop SMA spiral used in the test was
estimated as 903 KPa. Even under such relatively small pressure,
the application of active confinement increased the concrete
compressive strength and ultimate strain by 15% and 310%, re-
spectively. Furthermore, the efficacy of the proposed retrofitting
technique was explored analytically by developing an analytical
model representing a RC bridge column retrofitted with SMA
spirals. The experimental results obtained from the concrete cyl-
inder tests were used to calibrate the analytical column model.
The behavior of the analytical column was studied under cyclic
loading and a suite of six earthquake records. The behavior of
the SMA retrofitted column was compared with that of CFRP
retrofitted column. The analytical results demonstrated a consid-
erable advantage for the actively confined column using SMAs
compared to the passively confined column using CFRP. Under
cyclic loading, the SMA retrofitted column exhibited a maxi-
mum increase in strength relative to the CFRP wrapped columns
by 38%. In addition, less damage was observed in the concrete
core and longitudinal steel when the column was actively
confined. On the other hand, under seismic excitations, using
SMA spirals improved the seismic behavior of the columns
significantly compared to CFRP wraps in terms of column
strength, effective stiffness, and column residual drifts. The supe-
riority of the proposed technique is primarily attributed to the
early increase in concrete strength associate with using active
confinement which delays the damage experienced by both con-
crete and steel.
Acknowledgments
The experimental work presented in this paper was made possible
by the support provided by the National Cooperative Highway
Research Program through its Innovations Deserving Exploratory
Analysis project 共NCHRP-IDEA兲 under Contract No. NCHRP-
135.
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