Experimental and numerical investigation on cyclic behaviour of RC beam column joints reinforced with geogrid material

Abstract

This article investigates the effectiveness of geogrid material on upgrading the cyclic performance of nonductile exterior reinforced concrete (RC) beam-column joints by experimental observations and non-linear finite element simulations. Conventional RC beam-column joints without seismic detailing confined internally with geogrid material and compared these specimens with control RC beam-column joint specimens with and without seismic detailing. A detailed 3D non-linear finite element (FE) analyses of the RC beam-column joints internally confined with geogrid in ANSYS are carried out. All the beam-column specimens are subjected to reverse cyclic loading under controlled amplitudes to explore the cyclic performance on the parameters such as failure patterns; load–displacement envelope curve; ductility factor. The test results showed that internal geogrid confinement are effective for enhancing the load-carrying capacity and also ductility of the test specimens. The load–displacement behaviour and damage predicted from finite element analysis almost show the similar behaviour with the experimental result. Hence geogrid with conventional steel bar can be used as a hybrid reinforcement which having excellent ductile behaviour for increasing the seismic performance of RC beam-column joints.