The bridge piers located in the ice-plagued area are influenced by hydrodynamic pressure and dynamic ice-load under seismic action. Based on the Morison hydrodynamic theory and Croteau dynamic ice model

a simple calculating model for the time-history analysis subject to seismic effect for pier column structures in the ice-plagued area has been proposed; and its effectiveness has been verified with the shaking table test; the effect of ice mass and water depth on pier column has been analyzed as well. The results show that the maximum curvature at the bottom of pier with ice increased by 8.93 times than the case without ice. The ice mass corresponding to the maximum curvature of the cross-section at bottom of pier increased with the water depth. The maximum displacement of pier can exceed the limiting displacement easily with the increase of ice mass

which leads to a sudden collapse of bridges

and should been taken a key consideration in the aseismatic design of bridge.