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To study the seismic performance of self-centering circular-section rocking steel bridge piers whose functions can be restored after an earthquake, a high-precision finite element (FE) analysis model of such a bridge piers was established. The hysteresis behavior of concrete-infilled and hollow rocking steel bridge piers was compared. In response to the characteristics of the local deformation of the wall plates and elliptical deformation of the bottom surface, two reinforcement methods for the pier bottom, namely thickening the wall plate and adding longitudinal stiffeners in the plastic zone of the pier bottom, were proposed. The pseudo static analysis of bridge piers was carried out considering the effects of overall design parameters and reinforcement parameters of the pier bottom. The results indicate that the FE model used in this paper can obtain accurate horizontal load-displacement curves of rocking steel bridge piers. The hysteresis curves of the rocking steel bridge piers and infilled concrete rocking steel bridge piers is close, and directly using hollow steel bridge piers can improve the economic efficiency of the design. Compared to adding longitudinal stiffeners, the reinforcement form of thickened wall plates at the pier bottom has a better effect in improving the seismic performance of bridge piers. The reinforcement of the pier bottom has little effect on the energy dissipation capacity of the bridge pier, but it helps to reduce residual displacement and improve lateral stiffness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]