Mechanical properties of prestressed tendon-planted glulam beam-column connections under cyclic loading

Abstract

Traditional glulam beam-column connections have the disadvantages of low bearing capacity, low stiffness, low ductility and poor energy dissipation ability. This paper proposed a new prestressed tendon-planted connection for glulam beam-column joints. Six groups of the connections were tested under reversed cyclic loading. The effects of the number and prestressed value of steel bars, tendon reinforcement ratio and tendon anchorage length on the performance of the connection were analyzed. The results indicated that the proposed connection showed ductile failure, involving the splitting failure of the beam and the bearing failure around the planting holes. The proposed configuration improves the ultimate bearing capacity, initial stiffness and energy dissipation performance, and slows down the stiffness degradation of the glulam beam-column connections. The number of steel bars and prestressed value have a positive effect on the initial stiffness of the joint, whilst the tendon reinforcement ratio has a significant positive influence on the bearing capacity of the joint. The bearing capacity of the joint no longer increases with the increase of the tendon anchorage length, when the anchorage length is 12.5 times greater than the tendon diameter. The prediction formula for the flexural capacity of the new joint is proposed, whilst the moment-rotation characteristics of the connection are also assessed.