External precast concrete nib beam-to-column connection under elevated temperatures: Experimental and finite element analysis

Abstract

The precast concrete nib is one of the most widely used beam-to-column connections to address the architectural drawback of the ordinary precast concrete corbel. However, precast concrete nib beam-to-column connections are not classified as fully rigid or pin but exhibit semirigid properties. Semirigid connections are at risk of deflection at lower loads and cracking during early fire events. In this study, full-scale fire tests were carried out to determine the thermal and structural behaviour of the external monolithic and precast concrete nib beam-to-column connections subjected to 120 min standard cellulose fires. A finite element simulation using ANSYS validated the experimental results based on the internal temperature distributions, load–deflection curves, and stress visualization. Results show that the tension reinforcement of the concrete nib specimen at high temperature was below the critical temperature of 300 °C during the 120 min of heating, compared to the monolithic specimen, which reached the critical temperature of 300 °C at 105 min. The crack patterns and failure modes of monolithic and precast concrete nib specimens at high temperatures were more visible than at ambient temperature. Based on the ductility factor and Monforton’s fixity factor, the concrete nib specimen at high temperatures was categorized as structures with limited ductility and classified in Zone I (pin connection), respectively. This study concluded that external precast concrete nib beam-to-column connections were more vulnerable at high temperatures than monolithic connections.