Experimental Study of Welded Connection of Three Steel Beams to Lateral Reinforced Concrete Column

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation in to the seismic performance of a composite moment resisting frame system that consists of reinforced concrete columns and steel beams. The type of RCS joint developed in this study is called column penetration joint which could improve its strength, deformation,and energy dissipation capacities compared to existing composite joints. A static reversed cyclic loading was performed on three specimens. Various detailing options were evaluated to provide full moment connection in both orthogonal framing directions at the beam-column joints. With appropriate joint detailing, specimens exhibited a desirable beam plastic hinge mechanism with stable hysteretic response to cyclic hysteresis loading. They were able to maintain their strength, with little or no deterioration of stiffness during repeated cycles at the same drift. Increasing the thickness of steel cover plates significantly increased the strength and enhanced the stiffness retention capacity of RCS joints

Keywords:

Composite connection , Failure mechanism , Seismic behavior , RCS frames , Coverplate