CYCLIC BEHAVIOUR OF PRECAST RC CONNECTIONS

Earthquake damages of precast structures can be attributed to poor connections between precast elements and also between precast elements and lateral load-resisting system. In this context, four experiments were performed on precast and corresponding monolithic exterior beam-column joint subassemblage specimens. The schemes for the anchorage of beam bars were different in the two sets of specimens. Further, in precast specimens, the connectivity of reinforcement bars between beam and column was achieved by welding the exposed bars of the components in the joint region. Under displacement-controlled pseudo-static loading, the precast specimen with beam bars anchored into the column performed better than the precast specimen with continuous U-bars as beam reinforcement; this performance of the former was comparable to that of the corresponding monolithic specimen.