Abstract: Intentional or accidental explosions can result in severe damage to bridge piers or even collapse of the entire bridge. Existing studies concerning the blast-resistant performance of pier mainly focus on cast-in-situ monolithic piers, with few studies concentrating on precast segmental reinforced concrete (PSRC) piers. Numerical simulation analysis was conducted on the PSRC pier of He-Ruo Railway Bridge in Xinjiang under close-in blast loading. Based on the field explosion tests of PSRC and cast-in-situ monolithic pier specimens, the adopted numerical simulation methods,i.e., the Structured Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method, the prestress application method, the material models and parameters, were thoroughly validated by comparing the pier damage modes and lateral deflection responses. The refined finite element (FE) model of the prototype PSRC pier of He-Ruo Railway Bridge was established. The failure mode and dynamic response of the pier under the explosion of a small moving van bomb specified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency were studied. Furthermore, the influence of the segment number, the initial prestress amplitude, the adoption of shear keys and energy dissipation bars, as well as the standoff distance on the blast-resistant performance of PSRC pier were discussed. The above explosion scenarios indicate that: The precast monolithic pier has better blast-resistant performance than the PSRC pier followed by the cast-in-situ monolithic pier becasue the cast-in-situ monolithic pier is prone to the local shear failure, leading to loss of bearing capacity of the pier. Besides, the joint between the two segments at the top of PSRC pier is susceptible to serious concrete crushing damage, which reduces the overall lateral stiffness of the pier; Either reducing the standoff distance or increasing the number of segments will cause more severe concrete crushing damage to the joint between the two segments at the top of PSRC pier; Increasing the initial prestress can effectively reduce the lateral deflection of PSRC pier, meanwhile exacerbate concrete crushing damage to the blast face at the bottom of the pier; Shear keys can significantly enhance the lateral stiffness of the 5-segment PSRC pier, and reduce the concrete crushing damage to the joints; The effect of energy dissipation bars in improving the blast-resistant performance of PSRC pier is not obvious.