Viable seismic strengthening solutions for RC wide beam-column joints

Abstract

Beam-column joints play a key role on the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete buildings. Many of these buildings, although they belong to earthquake prone countries, were designed only to withstand gravity loads, thus without appropriate strength and ductility capacity with respect to seismic actions. Beam-column joints with flat or wide beam are rather widespread in the European residential building stock. Contrarily to joints provided with stiff beams, there are a few studies devoted to evaluate their performance and, especially, the arrangement and effectiveness of strengthening solutions for this type of joints. For this reason an experimental program has been setup in order to evaluate the effectiveness of simple and easy to apply strengthening techniques derived from the CAM technique. Three identical specimens were tested, one in the as-built condition and two specimens after the application of steel based strengthening solutions. The present paper shows a preliminary analysis of the test results highlighting the effectiveness of the techniques proposed in improving the seismic behavior of the specimens under study

FE Modelling of the Seismic Behavior of Wide Beam-Column Joints Strengthened with CFRP Systems

“…The heavier damage to the column due to the increase of the flexural strength was also found in [38] through experimental tests on similar beam-column joints carried out by applying steel upgrading systems. However, in a framework of Life Safety limit state, where structural damage is allowed, the performance of the CRFP specimens is remarkably better if compared to the as-built one, suggesting this kind of interventions is suitable for RC buildings equipped with wide beams and shallow spandrel beams.…”

Finite Element Analysis of External Rc Wide Beam-Column Joints Provided With Different Detailing Solutions

“…This study is based on a remarkable experimental campaign carried out at the laboratory of structures of the University of Basilicata, where a set of wide beam-column joint specimens were tested under reversed cyclic lateral loads to study their seismic behavior [2,3] and possible strengthening techniques [4]. Beam-column joints equipped with deep beams were part of the same research program [5,6,7].…”