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The key factors affecting the behavior of reinforced concrete beam–column joints under cyclic load

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Abstract

The paper presents the key factors affecting the behavior of reinforced concrete beam–column joints under cyclic load. An extensive experimental database covering a wide range of design parameters was collected from published literature to study the factors affecting the joint shear capacity of reinforced beam–column joints. The investigated factors include concrete compressive strength, eccentricity, aspect ratio (beam depth/column depth), column axial load, anchorage condition at the end of beam longitudinal bar, transverse reinforcement in the joint region, and the ratio of the longitudinal reinforcement in the beam. The collected data include conventional joints reinforced with seismic details. The result indicated that the reinforced joints were not affected by the increasing joint aspect ratio in contrast to the unreinforced beam–column joint. It is found that the joint shear strength of the reinforced beam–column joints was enhanced by increasing the column axial load, while the unreinforced joints showed strength losses with a high level of axial load. Furthermore, increasing concrete compressive strength had no effect on the external reinforced beam–column joints. Finally, the comparison between ACI code predictions and the experimental database showed that the ACI code needs much more investigation about eccentric connections since its predictions were unsafe in many cases.

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Abbreviations

A g :

Cross section of column

\(A_{{{\text{sh}}}}\) :

Area of steel reinforcement legs for one layer in the joint core

\(A_{{{\text{str}}}}\) :

Cross-sectional area of the concrete strut

a s :

Depth of strut

\(b_{{\text{c}}}\) :

Total column width

\(b_{j}\) :

Effective joint width

\(b_{{\text{s}}}\) :

Width of the concrete strut

\(C_{{\text{s}}} ,C_{{\text{s}}}^{^{\prime}} ,C_{{\text{s}}}^{^{\prime\prime}}\) :

Compression steel forces induced by beam and column reinforcement to the concrete joint core

\(C_{c} ,C_{c}^{`} ,C_{c}^{``}\) :

Compression forces induced by concrete compression stress applied by three adjacent members

\(D_{{\text{c}}}\) :

Maximum force generated by concrete struts

\(D_{{{\text{s}}i}}\) :

Diagonal compressive strut component acting along ith strut

f c, f t :

Diagonal compression and tension forces in the joint core

\(f_{{\text{c}}}^{^{\prime}}\) :

Cylindrical compressive strength of concrete

f y :

Yield stress of steel

\(h_{{\text{c}}}\) :

The total depth of column in the loading direction

h b :

Beam depth

N :

Axial load supported by column

RC:

Reinforced concrete

S :

Spacing of steel reinforcement layers in the joint core

\(T,T^{^{\prime}} ,T^{^{\prime\prime}}\) :

Tension steel forces induced by beam and column reinforcement to the concrete joint core

\(T_{ih}\) :

Vertical tension component which needs to be carried by steel reinforcement

\(T_{iv}\) :

Horizontal tension component which needs to be carried by steel reinforcement

\(V_{{{\text{exp}}.}}\) :

Experimental joint shear capacity

\(V_{jh}\) :

Maximum horizontal joint shear force

\(V_{{\text{b}}}\) :

Shear force from the beam at the boundary of joint core

\(V_{{{\text{col}}}} , V_{{{\text{col}}}}^{^{\prime}}\) :

Shear force from the column at the boundary of joint core

\(V_{{{\text{svi}}}}\) :

Vertical shear force

\(V_{{{\text{shi}}}}\) :

Horizontal shear force

\(\beta_{c}\) :

The angle of strut inclination

\(\gamma_{j}\) :

Joint shear strength coefficient

\(\rho_{{\text{b}}}\) :

Beam longitudinal reinforcement ratio

\(\rho_{{{\text{bott}}.}}\) :

Bottom longitudinal reinforcement ratio of beam

\(\rho_{{{\text{top}}}}\) :

Top longitudinal reinforcement ratio of beam

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Nadir, W., Ali, A.Y. The key factors affecting the behavior of reinforced concrete beam–column joints under cyclic load. Asian J Civ Eng 23, 907–927 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-022-00464-6

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