Seismic experimental study on a precast concrete beam-column connection with grout sleeves

Abstract

The seismic behavior of the beam-column connections in concrete frame is studied in this paper, including five precast specimens and one cast-in-place specimen. For the precast specimens, the column, joint and part of the beam away from the joint are prefabricated, while the part of beam close to the joint is cast-in-place. The rebar is connected by grout sleeve. The specimens were tested under low-reversed cyclic loading, and were evaluated in terms of failure mode, skeleton curves, stiffness, energy dissipation, and drift capacity. Differences in seismic performance between these specimens were also revealed. From the test results, the seismic performance of the precast connection is similar to that of the cast-in-place connection. However, the distribution of cracks, the strain of reinforcements and the deformation of joint are different. The strength ratio between column and beam is an important factor on the failure mode of the precast connections. For precast connection, the seismic behavior of the plastic hinge as well as the core region of the joint are clearly affected by the grout sleeve, the cast-in-place region and the rebar hole. Also in the core region of the joint, slippage of longitudinal rebar is observed.