Experimental and Analysis of a Full Scale 3-Story 3-Bay RCS Composite Frame

Experimental and Analysis of a Full Scale 3-Story 3-Bay RCS Composite Frame

Based on the design experience, composite RCS moment frames, consisting of steel beams and reinforced concrete columns, can provide efficient and economical alternatives to traditional steel or reinforced concrete construction. Apart from the economies achieved by effective use of materials, research shows the viability of RCS beam-column connections to provide strength and ductility exceeding that in conventional steel or reinforced concrete moment frames. The full-scale RCS frame test was undertaken as a capstone project to validate the system performance of composite frames designed according to the current seismic code provisions. The test frame was loaded in a pseudo dynamic manner to simulate the structural response under ground motions corresponding to earthquake hazards for a high-seismicity site with 50%, 10%, and 2% chance of exceedance in 50 years. Following the pseudo-dynamic tests, the frame was subjected to a monotonic push with inter-story drift ratios up to 0.10. Ground motions scaled to the 10% in 50 year earthquake hazard caused peak interstory drift ratios up to 0.025, accompanied by steel beam yielding and concrete spalling and plastic hinging at the RC column bases. The 2% in 50 year earthquake hazard was more damaging with peak interstory drift ratios of up to 0.055 accompanied by local flange/web buckling in the beam hinge regions and significant spalling and cracking of the concrete columns. Throughout the loading the composite beam-column connections exhibited only minor damage.