Experimental study on local compressive behaviour of ECC ring beam connections

Abstract

To avoid problems associated with cracking and ensure that a connection has sufficient strength in compression for a through-beam ring beam connection, a novel Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC) ring beam connection is proposed and experimentally studied. Local compressive tests on 15 ring beam connections with various matrix type, width ratio, height-to-width ratio and reinforcement ratio are reported. According to the test results, ECC connections showed a higher load carrying capacity and more ductile behaviour than regular concrete connections. Compared with concrete ring beam connections, the displacement ductility of the ECC ring beam connections was improved by 25.7%-62.2%. The energy dissipation of the ECC connection specimens was 1.5 and 1.7 times larger than that of the concrete connections, respectively. The test results also indicated that the width ratio had the greatest impact on delaying cracking in the ECC connection. Increasing the reinforcement ratio can efficiently increase the peak load. Increasing the width ratio resulted in an obvious increase in the energy dissipation of the ECC ring beam connections.