Abstract

 In the present work, finite element analysis of RCC

pier models have been carried out.
 Linear static, modal and fluent analysis are carried out
using ANSYS 17 Software.
 Load on bridge is calculated from 18m span bridge
deck.
 Analysis of bridge pier is carried out for different pier
width and height with some decrements.
 Different Parameter are considered is to study the
effect of pier width on stress and displacement.
 The study shows that total displacement and stresses
increases with respect to decrement of pier width.
 Bridge pier of three dimensional model is created in
CREO software and same was analyzed in fluent
software.
 Here initially wind analysis is performed and pressure
reading directly imported into structural analysis.
 Natural frequencies of bridge deck are studied in
modal analysis in ANSYS.
 The wind analysis, structural and modal analysis is
using to find out the response of the bridge in time.
Introduction
 Piers provide vertical supports for spans at
intermediate points.
 Perform two main functions:
 Transferring superstructure vertical loads to the
foundations and Resisting horizontal forces acting on
the bridge.
Objective
 Build a computer model to simulate the bridge pier
under fixed.
 Performing the analysis with changing the geometry
parameters
 Natural frequencies to avoid the resonance of pier
model
 Develop a Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) model for
the velocity computations.
Literature review
 Rashmi R.Vanahalli( 2013) finite element analysis of
RCC pier models have been carried out.
 Premsai.T (2015) The main objective of his study is to
explore the analysis of a bridge pier. This has entailed
performing a detailed static analysis.
MODELING ASSUMPTIONS OF
BRIDGE PIER
 The model of bridge pier dimensions considered are
 length 8.6m
 Width 3.8m
 Thickness 1.5m.
 Different types of pier models are considered with
pier width with 0.3m decrements.
 Superstructure – Tee-Beam bridge of span 18m
 Carriage way width – 12 m.
Dimension of pier '1'
Pier Dimensions
Pier type Width(m) Height (m)
1 3.8 2.5
2 3.5 5
3 3.2 7.5
4 2.9 10
5 2.6 12
Steel Reinforcement
 Steel reinforcement in RC beam is of grade Fe415.
 The steel for the finite element models has been
assumed to be an elastic-perfectly plastic material and
identical in tension and compression.
 Elastic modulus equal to 200,000 MPa and Poisson’s
ratio of 0.3 has been used for all the reinforcing bars.
Material property for the bridge
pier.
Material
Material
Model Element Type
Properties
Number
EX 30000MPa
1 Solid65
PRXY 0.2
EX 200000MPa
2 Solid185
PRXY 0.3
EX 200000MPa
3 Link180
PRXY 0.3
Finite element analysis
 The Finite element is a mathematical method for
solving ordinary and partial differential equations.
 Finite element method is a numerical method to find a
exact solution to the boundary value which are defined
in the differential equation form.
 These elements are subdivided into, smaller and
simpler parts.
ANSYS
 Advanced numerical system simulation software) is
analysis software which is used to solve structural,
thermal and Completion fluid dynamics related
problems.
 The founder of the company is ANSYS pvt limited.
This company will release new different version every
year.
 It includes advanced non linear topics and releases
new version. ANSYS started in 1980’s and from then it
released many versions till now.
 ANSYS 17.0 version is available now.
ANSYS starting window
Preference is the selection of the analysis type.
To select whether it is static structural, dynamic structural, thermal related
solutions and Computational fluid dynamics related problems.
Geometry creating in ANSYS
Selection of element types in
ANSYS
Material properties window in
ANSYS
Finite element model of bridge pier
Boundary condition and loading
 There are different types of boundary conditions that
can be applied to edge or faces.
 In this there is generally fixed support has applied on
bottom portion of pier.
load applied on bridge pier.
 6240 KN load was applied on the bearing portion of
bridge pier.
 To run the Analysis, 64 bit operating system, 4GB ram
And ANSYS 16.0 is used.
 Without any problem, to run analysis software this
configuration is very apt.
 The previously created IGS file is imported on ANSYS
file geometry.
 In ANSYS, static structure analysis is performed.
2.5m height of pier displacement.
 Deformation of 2.6 m width, 2.5 m height bridge pier
due to super structure weight.
 Here maximum deformation is absorbed at sides of T-
beam. maximum deformation is absorbed at pier
supports.
 0.0024 mm deformation is the maximum and it was
1 MX

shown as red color.

NODAL SOLUTION
STEP=1
SUB =1 APR 9 2017
TIME=1 22:53:47
USUM (AVG)
RSYS=0
DMX =.002402
SMX =.002402

Z X

MN

0 .534E-03 .001067 .001601 .002135

.267E-03 .801E-03 .001334 .001868 .002402
 Deformation of 2.6 m width,5 m height bridge pier
due to super structure weight.
 Here maximum deformation is absorbed at sides of T-
beam.
 maximum deformation is absorbed at pier supports.
0.00256 mm deformation is the maximum and it was
1

shown as red color.

MX
NODAL SOLUTION
STEP=1
SUB =1 APR 11 2017
TIME=1 21:57:40
USUM (AVG)
RSYS=0
DMX =.002569
SMX =.002569
Y

Z X

MN

0 .571E-03 .001142 .001713 .002284

.285E-03 .856E-03 .001427 .001998 .002569
 Bending stress of 2.6 m width, 5 m height bridge pier
due to super structure weight.
 Here maximum stresses is absorbed at middle of T-
beam. maximum stresses is absorbed at pier middle
portion.
 8.1 M.Pa bending stress is the maximum and it was
shown as red color. 1
NODAL SOLUTION
STEP=1
SUB =1 APR 11 2017
TIME=1 21:58:12
SEQV (AVG) MN
DMX =.002569
SMN =216927
SMX =.817E+07 MX
Y

Z X

216927 .198E+07 .375E+07 .552E+07 .729E+07

.110E+07 .287E+07 .464E+07 .640E+07 .817E+07
 Bending stress of 2.6 m width, 7.5 m height bridge pier
due to super structure weight.
 Here maximum stresses is absorbed at middle of T-
beam. maximum stresses is absorbed at pier middle
portion.
 8.17 M.Pa bending stress is the maximum and it was
shown as red color. 1
NODAL SOLUTION
STEP=1
SUB =1
MN
APR 11 2017
TIME=1 22:35:00
SEQV (AVG)
DMX =.002736 MX
Y
SMN =216927
SMX =.817E+07 Z X

216927 .198E+07 .375E+07 .552E+07 .729E+07

.110E+07 .287E+07 .464E+07 .640E+07 .817E+07
 Deformation of 2.6 m width,10 m height bridge pier
due to super structure weight.
 Here maximum deformation is absorbed at sides of T-
beam. maximum deformation is absorbed at pier
supports.
 0.00291 mm deformation is the maximum and it was
shown as red color. 1
NODAL SOLUTION
STEP=1
SUB =1
TIME=1
MX

APR 11 2017
22:44:56
USUM (AVG) Y
RSYS=0
DMX =.002951 Z X
SMX =.002951

MN

0 .656E-03 .001312 .001967 .002623

.328E-03 .984E-03 .001639 .002295 .002951
MODAL ANALYSIS
 Any physical system can vibrate.
 The frequencies at which vibration naturally occurs,
and the modal shapes which the vibrating system
assumes are properties of the system, and can be
determined analytically using Modal Analysis.
Comparison between 2D and 3D
1
DISPLACEMENT
STEP=1
SUB =1 MAY 5 2017
FREQ=35.2044 20:49:16
DMX =.008972

1
DISPLACEMENT
STEP=1
SUB =2 MAY 5 2017
FREQ=28.8117 20:56:15
DMX =.009638
Y
Z X

Z X
Geometry model is created in creo software.
And same file imported into ANSYS.
Here air domain is created in ANSYS.
Separate concentrated fluid domain is created arroung the bridge PIER.
final domain size is 50m in length and 30 m in width.
Total pressure plot of bridge pier
we can see the distribution of the pressure around the bridge pier section in the domain.
The pressure contours vary around the section of bridge pier.
We can easily observe that the concentration of pressure at the
nose of the bridge section at the front is much higher than any other place.
Whereas the nose of the bridge at the wake is subjected to a suction or negative pressure.
Here maximum deformation is shown in red region and maximum
deformation value is 0.0009 mm
minimum deformation is observed at supporting region.
Which shown in blue color.
Deformation of bridge piers
Conclusion
 Structural analysis:
 Stresses and deformation increases linearly up 2.5 m
height to 12 m height.
 Stresses and deformation increases from 3.8 m width
to 2.6 width. minimum deformation and stresses are
observed at 2.6 width and 2.5 m height of bride pier as
considered as optimum parameters of pier.
 Modal analysis is performed to optimized model.
 Here two types of elements in ANSYS considered and
compared it. Less deviation is observed.
 Wind analysis:
 In this present work, three dimensional bridge piers are analysed with
considering air flow.
 Here in Visakhapatnam region 50m /s.
 To create three dimensional bridge deck, PTC CREO 2.0 modelling
software is used and for the FLUENT analysis ANSYS is used.
 After the analysis are performed, 2.11 N/m2 intensity of pressure is
observed on left side of bridge pier., Because it is a portion to face the
wind load.
 Fluid structural interface analysis is performed on bridge pier with
considering the fixed supported boundary conditions of bottom end
 Maximum deformations and bending stresses are found from the
analysis at these are in allowable limit to avoid the failures.
References
 [1] Ben jamin M. Schick, “Finite element analysis of reinforced concrete bridge
pier columns subjected to seismic loading”, Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, pp. 577-0142.
 [2] Hayder Ala’a Hasan, Ammar A. Abdul Rahman and Hani Aziz Ameen,
“Finite element analysis of reinforced concrete bridge pier subjected to seismic
loading”, American Journal of Science and Industrial Research, Vol. 3(2), 2012,
pp. 94-98.
 [3] Gary R. Consolazio, A.M. and David R. Cowan, “Numerically Efficient
.Dynamic Analysis of Barge Collisions with Bridge Piers”, Vol. 6(2), 2004.
 [4] Sung jig Kim ,Curtis J. Holub and Amr S. Elnashai F, “Analytical Assessment
of the Effect of Vertical Earthquake Motion on RC Bridge Piers”, Journal of
Structural Engineering, pp. 577-0142.
 [5] Avinash S Joshi and Laxmikant M Gupta, “A simulation study on
quantifying damage in bridge piers subjected to vehicle collisions”,
International Journal of Advanced Structural Engineering, 2012.
 [6] M.G. Kalyanshetti and C.V. Alkunte, “Study on electiveness of IRC LIVE
load on RCR Bridge pier”, International Journal of Advanced Technology in
Civil Engineering, Vol. 1(3-4), 2012.