Seismic performance of reinforced concrete eccentric beam-column connections with floor slabs

Abstract

Two 2/3-scale reinforced concrete eccentric beam-column-slab subassemblies (edge connections with flush exterior edge-beam and column faces) were tested under large lateral displacement reversals. The main objective of the study was to investigate the effect of floor slabs on the seismic performance of eccentric beam column connections. The specimens (with different eccentricities and edge-beam widths) exhibited similar behavior before they started to break down, and they also reached similar joint shear strengths. Based on these results, it was concluded that the floor slabs diminished differences between seismic performance of the specimens and increased joint shear strengths of the specimens when compared with other eccentric connections without floor slabs. Finally, ACI code design procedures for estimating nominal joint shear strength were quite conservative for the case of eccentric beam-column connections with floor slabs.