Seismic behaviour of reinforced concrete exterior wide beam-column joints

Abstract

An experimental and numerical investigation carried out on RC wide beam-column joints when subjected to seismic loads is

reported within this paper. The experimental study was conducted by subjecting three full-scale wide exterior beam-column specimens to

simulated seismic loads at the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore. Simulations of earthquake loadings were applied on to the

specimens via quasistatic load reversals. Seismic performance analysis of the joints were based on the results obtained from the experiment

in terms of their general behavior, hysteresis response, and the strain profiles of the longitudinal reinforcement within the specimens.

These experimental results were then used to validate a three-dimensional 3D nonlinear finite-element FE model. The behavior of the

joints under the influence of critical influencing factors like column axial load, transverse beam, and beam bar anchorage ratio were also

analyzed through the parametric studies carried out.