European Journal of Scientific Research

ISSN 1450-216X Vol.69 No.4 (2012), pp. 584-592

© EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2012
http://www.europeanjournalofscientificresearch.com

Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Beam and Composite

Column Joint with Stiffening Rings

P. S. Aravind Raj
Research Scholar, Structural Engineering Department
Hindustan University, Padur, Chennai
E-mail: cravin_speed@yahoo.co.in
Tel: +919940298500

P. S. Joanna
Professor, Civil Engineering Department
Hindustan University, Padur, Chennai
E-mail: joanna@hindustanuniv.ac.in
Tel: +919789998727

Abstract

The present study focuses on the connection system for encased cold-formed steel
column and reinforced concrete beam. In this connection the longitudinal reinforcement in
the beam which are being interrupted by the steel tube in the column are made continuous
in the beam-column joint. This is done by providing stiffening ring in the form of lateral
hoops which is also useful for confining the concrete in the connection zone. This system is
easier for casting and tube filling when compared to the conventional method of in-situ
welding and hole-drilling. Five series of specimens with two specimens on each series were
tested in the study which included two control specimens. The number of tiers and the
number of concentric rings were the variables among the specimens. The specimens were
tested under a constant axial load and reversed lateral loading. Experimental results
indicate a significant increase in the lateral strength capacity, ductility ratio and increase in
energy absorption capacity of the beam-column joint when provided with the stiffening
rings.

Keywords: Encased cold-formed steel column, Beam-column joint, Stiffening ring,

Ductility, Energy absorption capacity.

1. Introduction
The concept of confined concrete has been widely accepted and applied in structural engineering.
Concrete filled steel tubes (CFST), as an economical type of column, have been developed for several
decades due to their advantage over either pure steel or pure reinforced concrete members. The inner
concrete of CFST enhances the stability of the member while the steel tube gives triaxial stress state,
and thus induces a confinement effect. For the optimum performance of these structural members, the
beam-column joints plays a significant role. The through-beam connections are expected to have better
seismic performance since the confinement of the concrete at the joint zone is high. The enhanced
Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Beam and Composite Column Joint with Stiffening Rings 585

connection system proposed in this paper can also be considered as a typical through-beam connection.
The interruption of the steel tube from the column is compensated by the multiple steel lateral hoops.
Tsono et al. (2000) investigated the improvement of earthquake resistance of exterior reinforced
concrete beam-column connection with vertical hoop in the joint region and compared with the
response of similar specimens constructed with the vertical joint shear reinforcement. It was concluded
that sub assemblages with vertical hoops in the joint region have increased strength, stiffness and
energy dissipation. Subramanian et al. (2003) studied the behaviour of beam-column joints and found
that the efficiency of the joint improved when inclined bars were added to take up the tensile forces at
the inner corners. Anandavalli et al. (2005) carried out experiments on exterior beam-column joints and
assessed the seismic capacity of the joint in the nuclear power plant structures. Test results revealed
that there was a significant contribution due to shear deformation on the total deformation suffered by
the joint. Alva et al. (2007) conducted experiments on exterior beam-column joints under reversed
cyclic loading and it was found that the compressive strength of concrete and the number of stirrup
were the major factor that governs the joint shear capacity. Jianguo et a1. (2008) studied the behaviour
of beam-column joints with stiffening cage for a concrete filled steel tube composite column and
reinforced concrete beams under reversed cyclic loading. The experimental results showed that the
effective confinement could be achieved by the stiffening ring with increase in axial bearing capacity,
ductility and energy dissipation capacity. Bing Li et al. (2009) carried out the experimental and
analytical investigations on light weight reinforced concrete beam-column joints. The specimens were
subjected to quasi-static load reversals to simulate earthquake loadings. The results showed that the
light weight concrete members did not perform well in transferring the joint moments.
In this paper the effect of stiffening ring on the strength, ductility and energy absorption
capacity of the reinforced concrete beam and encased cold-formed column joint was studied. Five
series of specimens with two specimens on each series were tested in the study which included two
control specimens. The number of tiers and the number of concentric rings were the variables among
the specimens. The specimens were tested under a constant axial load and reversed lateral loading.
Lateral load versus lateral displacement curve, energy absorption versus lateral displacement curve,
strength capacity and ductility curve are presented.

2. Experimental Investigation
2.1. Test Specimen Details
The test specimen consists of a concrete filled cold-formed steel tube, which is encased by reinforced
concrete. The size of the cold-formed steel box section was 50 mm x 50 mm and 2 mm thick. The
height of the column tested was 1000 mm and of cross section 200 mm x 200 mm size. The length of
the beam was 1200 mm and of cross section 200 mm x 200 mm. The column and beam were made
with M30 grade concrete. Fe-415 grade steel was used for longitudinal reinforcements and Fe-250
grade steel for stirrups and lateral ties. The joint zone was enhanced with an additional confining
reinforcement and had a section covering the stiffening ring cage of 300 mm diameter. The
reinforcement details are shown in Table 1. Figure 1 and Figure 2 shows the details of test specimens
and reinforcement cages respectively.

Table 1: Details of the beam-column tested

Reinforcement details of Reinforcement details of

Stiffening ring details
Specimen Beam Column
Sl.No
code Number Number of Longitudinal Longitudinal Lateral
Stirrups
of tiers concentric rings Reinforcement Reinforcement ties
1 CS-1
- - 6mm at 6mm at
2 CS-2 4 nos.10mm 4 nos.10mm
180mm c/c 100mm c/c
3 S21-1 2 1
586 P. S. Aravind Raj and P. S. Joanna
Table 1: Details of the beam-column tested - continued

4 S21-2
5 S22-1
2 2
6 S22-2
7 S31-1
3 1
8 S31-2
9 S32-1
3 2
10 S32-2

Figure 1: Test specimen details

S21 S22

S31 S32

Figure 2: Reinforcement cages

(a) Specimen with two tiers and one concentric ring (b) Specimen with two tiers and two concentric rings
Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Beam and Composite Column Joint with Stiffening Rings 587
Figure 2: Reinforcement cages - continued

(c) Specimen with three tiers and one concentric ring (d) Specimen with three tiers and two concentric rings

2.2. Test Set-up

The test set-up consist of a reaction frame, a hydraulic actuator of capacity 200 kN with a stroke length
of ±100mm, loading frame with hydraulic jack of 100 kN to apply loads to the test specimens. 100 kN
hydraulic jack was used to apply constant axial compressive load through steel rollers placed in
between steel plates. A steel reaction frame was used to support the 200 kN actuator for providing
lateral load to the specimen. Instrumentation included linear voltage displacement transducers (LVDT)
for lateral displacement measurement at the top of the column and one load cell attached to the actuator
was used for the measurement of reversed lateral loads. The vertical load was chosen to a design
compression rate of 20% of axial resistance found in the analysis. The test set-up is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Experimental set-up for the test specimens

3. Test Results
3.1. Observed Failure Modes
In the specimens without the stiffening ring, there was more crushing of concrete and major cracks
propagated at the beam-column junction. For the specimens with stiffening ring cracks were observed
only in column. There was no spalling of concrete at the beam-column junction in all the cases except
the control specimen. Only a very few cracks of fine width were observed in the specimens provided
with stiffening ring. The failure pattern of the test specimens is shown in Figure 4.
588 P. S. Aravind Raj and P. S. Joanna
Figure 4: Failure pattern of the test specimens

(a) Control Specimen CS (b) Specimen S21

(c) Specimen S22 (d) Specimen S31 (e) Specimen S32

3.2. Lateral Load Versus Lateral Displacement Curve

The variation of lateral displacement with that of the lateral load for all the specimens is shown in
Figure 5. The control specimen CS-1 and CS-2 failed at an average lateral load of 17.5 kN with a
lateral displacement of 9.28 mm. The other specimen series S21, S22, S31 and S32 failed at an average
loads of 35.1 kN, 30 kN, 34.1 kN, 31.4 kN with the corresponding average displacements of 30.24
mm, 35.59 mm, 37.40 mm and 41.11 mm respectively.

Figure 5: Load displacement curves for the test specimens

(a) Specimen CS-1 (b) Specimen CS-2

Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Beam and Composite Column Joint with Stiffening Rings 589
Figure 5: Load displacement curves for the test specimens - continued

(c) Specimen S21-1 (d) Specimen S21-2

(e) Specimen S22-1 (f) Specimen S22-2

(g) Specimen S31-1 (h) Specimen S31-2

590 P. S. Aravind Raj and P. S. Joanna
Figure 5: Load displacement curves for the test specimens - continued

(i) Specimen S32-1 (j) Specimen S32-2

3.3. Strength Capacity of the Specimens

Figure 6. shows the trajectory of load-displacement of the specimens S21, S22, S31, S32, and CS. The
specimens failed at an average load of 35.1kN, 30 kN, 34.1 kN, 31.4 kN and 17.5 kN respectively.
Thus there is 100.5%, 71.4%, 94.8%, and 79.4% increase in the strength capacity of specimen S21,
S22, S31, and S32 respectively when compared to the specimen CS.

Figure 6: Comparison between Peak lateral load-Lateral displacement of test specimens

40
30
20 S21
Lateral Load, kN

10 S22
0 S31
‐60 ‐40 ‐20 ‐10 0 20 40 60
S32
‐20 CS
‐30
‐40
Deflection, mm

3.4. Ductility
Ductility is the property which allows the structure to undergo large deformation without loosing its
strength. Ductility is quantified by the ductility factor. It is the ratio of displacement at failure to the
displacement at yield point. Table 2 shows the ductility of the specimens

Table 2: Ductility of test specimens

Specimen Yield Displacement Ultimate Displace Percentage increase in ductility

Ductility Ratio
Series (mm) ment (mm) ratio with respect to CS series (%)
C 14.31 17.74 1.24 -
S21 19.14 25.42 1.33 7%
Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Beam and Composite Column Joint with Stiffening Rings 591
Table 2: Ductility of test specimens - continued

S22 22.59 33.71 1.49 20 %

S31 28.06 37.97 1.35 9%
S32 20.59 40.57 1.97 59 %

It is observed that there is 7 %, 20 %, 8 %, and 59 % increase in ductility for specimen series

S21, S22, S31,and S32 respectively compared to the specimen series CS. This shows that the stiffening
rings provided in the specimens increased the ductility of the column when subjected to lateral loading.

3.5. Energy Absorption Capacity

The ability of a structure to absorb the ground motion energy is an accurate measure for its expected
seismic performance. In this study, the energy absorbed by the tested specimens during reversed lateral
load testing was calculated as the area enclosed by each hysteresis loop for each cycle.

Figure 7: Average Energy absorption capacity of specimen series

Conclusions
This paper presents an experimental investigation conducted to study the behaviour of beam-column
junction provided with additional stiffening rings. Two specimens without the stiffening rings and
eight specimens with varying number of tiers and concentric rings were tested. The specimens were
tested under constant axial load and reversed lateral load and the following conclusions are drawn.
• The specimen series S21 has the highest load carrying capacity and there is 101 %
increase in the strength compared with the control specimen series CS.
• The specimen series S32 has the highest ductility ratio and there is 59 % increase in the
strength compared with the control specimen series CS.
• At higher levels of lateral displacement, the energy absorbed by the beam-column with
stiffening ring is much higher than the control specimen without stiffening ring.
Thus the seismic performance of the beam-column joint with stiffening ring is superior to that
of the beam-column without stiffening ring.

References
[1] Alva G.M.S., El Debs A.L.H.C. and El Debs M.K. (2007). “An Experimental Study on Cyclic
Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Connections”. Canadian Journal of Civil Engneering.
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592 P. S. Aravind Raj and P. S. Joanna

[2] Anandavalli N., Lakshmanan N., Jayaraman R. and Thandavamoorthy T.S. (2005). “Testing
and Evaluation of Full Scale Beam-Column Joints of Power Plant Structures”. Journal of
Structural Engineering, SERC. Vol. 32, pp. 1-9.
[3] Bing Li and H.Y.Grace Chua. (2009). “Seismic Performance of Strengthened Reinforced
Concrete Beam-Column Joints Using FRP Composites”. Journal of Structural Engineering,
ASCE, Vol.135, pp. 1177-1190.
[4] Jianguo Nie, Yu Bai, and C. S. Cai. (2008). “New Connection System for Confined Concrete
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[5] Subramaniam N, and Rao P.D.S. (2003). “Seismic Design of Joints in RC Structures – A
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[6] Tsono A.G. (2000), “Effect of Vertical Hoops on the Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Beam-
Column Connections”. European Earthquake Engineering. Vol.2, pp. 13-26.