Seismic performance of corroded prefabricated column-footing joint with grouted splice sleeve connection: Experiment and simulation

Abstract

Steel corrosion is a critical factor in the seismic performance degradation of prefabricated concrete structures. In this study, the constant current accelerated corrosion method was employed to achieve targeted corrosion levels in steel bars within prefabricated column-footing joints connected by a grouted splice sleeve (GSS). Following that, a quasi-static cyclic experiment and numerical simulation method were employed to investigate the seismic performance of the specimens under various corrosion levels. Seismic performance indicators of specimens including the hysteresis curves, skeleton curves, bearing capacity, ductility coefficient, stiffness, and cumulative energy dissipation are examined. The results demonstrate that the failure modes of all column-footing joints are flexural failures. Specimens with steel bar corrosion levels below 14.1 % show negligible impact on the seismic performance. However, as the corrosion level increases, both the bearing capacity and cumulative energy dissipation capacity of the specimens significantly decrease. The horizontal displacement and ultimate displacement corresponding to the maximum bearing capacity are only 50.5 % and 45.2 %, respectively, compared to the non-corroded specimen. Additionally, a refined finite element model of prefabricated column-footing joints with GSS connections under different corrosion levels is developed and the hysteresis and skeleton curves obtained by numerical simulation are verified to be in good agreement with the experimental results. The numerical simulation outcomes regarding peak load and corresponding horizontal displacement maintain a relative error within 15 % compared to the experimental results.