Seismic behavior of steel reinforced concrete (SRC) joints with new-type section steel under cyclic loading

No significant improvement has been observed on the seismic performance of the ordinary steel reinforced concrete (SRC) columns compared with the reinforced concrete (RC) columns mainly because I, H or core cross-shaped steel cannot provide sufficient confinement for core concrete. Two improved SRC columns by constructing with new-type section steel were put forward on this background: a cross-shaped steel whose flanges are in contact with concrete cover by extending the geometry of webs, and a rotated cross-shaped steel whose webs coincide with diagonal line of the column's section. The advantages of new-type SRC columns have been proved theoretically and experimentally, while construction measures and seismic behavior remain unclear when the new-type columns are joined onto SRC beams. Seismic behavior of SRC joints with new-type section steel were experimentally investigated by testing 5 specimens subjected to low reversed cyclic loading, mainly including the failure patterns, hysteretic loops, skeleton curves, energy dissipation capacity, strength and stiffness degradation and ductility. Effects of steel shape, load angel and construction measures on seismic behavior of joints were also analyzed. The test results indicate that the new-type joints display shear failure pattern under seismic loading, and steel and concrete of core region could bear larger load and tend to be stable although the specimens are close to failure. The hysteretic curves of new-type joints are plumper whose equivalent viscous damping coefficients and ductility factors are over 0.38 and 3.2 respectively, and this illustrates the energy dissipation capacity and deformation ability of new-type SRC joints are better than that of ordinary ones with shear failure. Bearing capacity and ductility of new-type joints are superior when the diagonal cross-shaped steel is contained and beams are orthogonal to columns, and the two construction measures proposed have little effect on the seismic behavior of joints.