Simplified Method for Structural Capacity and Reinforcement Design of Reinforced Concrete Circular Bridge Piers Considering Second-Order Effects

The traditional calculation methods for the second-order structural capacity and reinforcement of reinforced concrete circular slender piers have certain limitations. The traditional calculation process involves many complex formulas and iterative calculations, which are difficult to complete manually and bring many inconveniences to practical engineering applications. To address this challenge, this article establishes five strain zones based on the complete constitutive relationship curves of concrete and reinforcement, solves the internal forces with strain as the independent variable, avoids the iterative calculation of the traditional standard methods, derives the calculation formula for the structural capacity of reinforced concrete circular sections, and provides a dimensionless chart for determining the structural capacity and reinforcement of circular section piers and columns. Based on this, a calculation method for calculating the second-order structural capacity and reinforcement of reinforced concrete circular section piers is provided. This method significantly simplifies the second-order structural capacity and reinforcement calculation process of reinforced concrete circular bridge piers, making up for the shortcomings of determining numerous calculation parameters and iteratively solving transcendental equations in the traditional standard calculations, and providing a convenient and efficient manual calculation tool for engineering practice. The calculation results of the examples demonstrate that the proposed method enables simple and rapid determination of the second-order structural capacity and reinforcement for reinforced concrete circular slender piers using the reinforcement with a characteristic yield strength of 500 MPa, showing good agreement with traditional standard iterative calculation methods and exhibiting good accuracy and reliability.