Study on the Flexural Performance of Prestressed High Strength Concrete Pile

Four prestressed high strength concrete (PHC) piles under low-cycle loading and two piles under monotonic flexural loading were tested to study the test phenomena, failure modes, hysteretic performance, ductility and bearing capacity. It was indicated that PHC piles failed suddenly and the bearing capacity decreased because of the tensile rupturing of prestressing tendons from the results, and the hysteretic curves pinched. Nonlinear finite element models were established to analyze the mechanical properties of PHC piles using ABAQUS and OpenSees. The results obtained from the numerical analysis compared well with the experimental results. In addition, nonlinear finite element models were used to study influence of the position, pattern, number and diameter of deformed bars to the PHC piles reinforced with deformed bars (PRC piles). The analysis results showed that the deformed bars should be arranged evenly in circle direction, and the bearing capacity of PRC increased with the number and diameter of deformed bars.