**5. Analysis Results and Discussions**

**5. Analysis Results and Discussions**  *5.1. Typical Seismic Response of Bridge Components*

*5.1. Typical Seismic Response of Bridge Components*  To take a close look at the pier response, the typical time-history responses of bearing displacement and curvature ductility of the pier are shown in Figure 9a,b, respectively. It could be observed that the introduction of the novel SCR pier bridge system slightly increased the bearing displacement but extensively reduced the pier curvature ductility due to the rocking mechanism. The typical time history responses of the pier's lateral seismic force versus drift ratio in the conventional and novel bridges are further illustrated in Figure 9c. As anticipated, a flag-shaped hysteretic response with negligible residual deformation was observed for the novel bridge. The SMA washer sets provide moderate To take a close look at the pier response, the typical time-history responses of bearing displacement and curvature ductility of the pier are shown in Figure 9a,b, respectively. It could be observed that the introduction of the novel SCR pier bridge system slightly increased the bearing displacement but extensively reduced the pier curvature ductility due to the rocking mechanism. The typical time history responses of the pier's lateral seismic force versus drift ratio in the conventional and novel bridges are further illustrated in Figure 9c. As anticipated, a flag-shaped hysteretic response with negligible residual deformation was observed for the novel bridge. The SMA washer sets provide moderate energy dissipation. On the other hand, the conventional pier exhibited a fuller hysteresis

but was accompanied by damage accumulation. The degree of damage can be further understood by the typical bending moment versus curvature responses at the plastic hinge region of the pier, as shown in Figure 9d. The maximum curvature of the fixed pier was 0.0226, which is significantly larger than that of the rocking pier (i.e., 0.0079). This reaffirms that the fixed pier undergoes more extensive damage than the rocking pier.
