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ABSTRACT

Though the precast concrete structural systems are being widely

used worldwide, in India most of the constructions are cast-in-situ concrete

constructions. The tremendous growth of population in India and limited

space available has led to the demand for multistory residential buildings.

This demand can be satisfied by the utilization of factory made quality

controlled precast units that provides for faster construction leading to

economy.

Earthquakes are natural disasters which have caused a lot of

infrastructural damage and loss to human lives. In the past earthquakes, the

cost effective precast structural systems had not performed well. The failure

of the precast structures was attributed to the poor performance of

connections. Connections form the weakest link in the precast concrete

structure. For the past four decades though a lot of research has been carried

out on the behavior of precast structures, a complete understanding of the

behaviour of precast beam-column connections to lateral loading has not been

brought out.

Precast concrete structural systems displaying non-linear response

characteristics can be broadly classified into two main categories as

Equivalent Monolithic Systems and Jointed Systems. Since the seventies, it

can be widely observed in the literature that a lot of research on precast

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structures emulating the behaviour of reinforced concrete cast in-situ seismic

resistant frames had been carried out. However limited research work has

been carried out on jointed systems for use in seismic regions.

The present study aims at investigating experimentally and

analytically the cyclic behaviour of beam-column “dry” mechanical

connections for precast concrete elements and to identify an ideal dry

mechanical joint that would perform efficiently in seismic zones. In the

present study, seven types of simple mechanical precast beam column

connections and a reference monolithic specimen were considered. The

monolithic specimens were cast in two numbers with the reinforcement

detailing as per IS 13920:1993. The seven precast beam column connections

were grouped into three categories. The specimens were classified into three

groups with two numbers in each group. They are TYPE I connections - Bolt

and Rod connections, TYPE II connections: Cleat Angle and Stiffened Cleat

Connections and TYPE III connections: Dowel Connections. The TYPE I

connection consisted of two connection details (i) Precast connection using J-

Bolt (PC-JB) and (ii) Precast connection using Tie Rod (PC-TR). The TYPE

II connection consisted of three connection details (i) Precast connection

using Cleat Angle (PC-CL) (ii) Precast connection using cleat angle and

Single Stiffener (PC-SS) (iii) Precast connection using cleat angle and Double

Stiffener (PC-DS). The TYPE III connection consisted of two connection

details (i) Precast connection using Dowel bar (PC-DW) and (ii) Precast

connection using Dowel bar and Cleat Angle (PC-DWCL). The precast

concrete beam and column near the joint were also detailed with confinement
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reinforcement. All the sixteen specimens were tested under constant axial

load on the upper end of the column and with cyclic load at the end of the

beam. The main objective of the study was to investigate the different

detailing of joints in an exterior precast concrete beam-column joint subject to

reverse cyclic loading. Analytical modeling was also performed on the

monolithic specimen and seven precast specimens using finite element

package ANSYS and the experimental results were validated with the results

obtained from the finite element models. The experimental results matched

well with the analytical results. From the study, it was observed that precast

specimens PC-DS and PC-DWCL performed satisfactorily in terms of

ductility and energy dissipation when compared to the reference monolithic

specimen ML.