Research on HGV Collisions with Concrete Bridge Piers

Bridge piers are highly vulnerable to accidental collision with heavy truck vehicles. Current design and assessment codes account the effect of vehicle collision by means of an equivalent static load. This methodology although is simple but have raised many concerns on their suitability to reflect the exact collision condition, which is highly dynamic. Therefore many existing bridge piers are in great danger of malicious impact. Recently, a research collaboration is initiated between JKR and UTP to investigate the impact vulnerability of RC bridge piers when subjected to HGV truck collisions. The work involves using nonlinear finite element (FE) simulation to conduct complex vehicle-pier impact scenarios. This paper is intended to present the general outlook plan of this project with emphasis focused on the consideration of FE models used for HGV trucks and concrete bridge piers.