Seismic behaviour of deficient exterior RC beam-column joints.

Post-earthquake reconnaissance and results of previously conducted experiments show that stiffness and strength deterioration of beam-column joints can have a detrimental effect on the integrity and vulnerability of reinforced concrete frame structures, especially in older buildings in developing countries. As a result, there is a need to develop efficient structural evaluation techniques that are capable of accurately estimating the strength and deformability of existing buildings to facilitate the development of safer, simpler, and lower cost retrofit solutions and thus contributing to risk mitigation. The current research is part of a general effort that is being carried out at the University of Sheffield to quantify and develop strategies for the mitigation of seismic risk in developing countries. The primary aim of this work is to improve the current understanding of the seismic behaviour of deficient exterior reinforce concrete beam-column joints. Seven full-scale isolated exterior beam-column joints were tested under quasi-static cyclic loading to investigate and quantify the effects of using different types of beam reinforcement anchorages and low column axial loads on the seismic shear performance of exterior beam-column joints with no shear reinforcement. Contrary to what is reported in the literature, the test results show that increasing the column axial load even at very low levels «O.2f'oAg,) can enhance the joint shear strength of deficient exterior joints (exhibiting pure shear failure) by up to 15%. The test results also show that, for the same joint panel geometry and column axial load, the type of beam anchorage detail, whether it is a straight bar, long or short hook, can influence the joint shear strength by up to 34%. A new analytical model that predicts the shear strength of deficient exterior beam-column joints in both loading directions and takes into account the column axial load and bond conditions within the joint is developed. The model predicts with good accuracy the strength of the tested specimens in addition to other specimens reported by other researchers. Furthermore, a springbased exterior beam-column joint model for finite element analysis of deficient RC frames is proposed. The model development includes a joint shear stress-strain constitutive model based on the developed strength model. The simulated response using the proposed model shows good agreement with the experimentally observed response.