Experimental Study on Dynamic Collapse of Short RC Columns under Near-fault Ground Motions

Experimental Study on Dynamic Collapse of Short RC Columns under Near-fault Ground Motions

This project serves as the 3rd set of tests in the NCREE series of RC column collapse studies and will be able to complete the technical loop at NCREE in investigating different failure modes of RC columns. These data sets constitute an outstanding platform for developing innovative numerical simulation methodology, in either simplified or comprehensive manner, to account for post-peak structural behavior into next generation seismic design criteria. These tests, tentatively scheduled in late February and March of 2007, will focus on studying pure shear failure of short columns. Specimen configurations include local and global collapse as well. This project also comes with companion full-scale cyclic tests on single double-curvature columns having the same design details. Hysteretic characteristics collected from cyclic tests can be used later for nonlinear dynamic simulation of shake test results.