Shear forces acting at the joint core

When a beam-column connection is subjected to lateral seismic loading, large shear

forces may be generated in the beam-column joint area and cause joint shear failure. The
external and internal forces acting on an exterior beam-column connection are simulated
as shown in Figure 2.1 (a). In this figure, H is the column height and L is the beam length.
The bending moment and the shear forces generated on the column, including the joint
region, can be determined as shown in Figure 2.1 (b) and (c), respectively. From Figure
2.1, the horizontal shear force acting at the joint, Vjh can be determined as:

V jh  Ts b Vc (2.1)

where the horizontal tensile force of the beam longitudinal reinforcement, Tsb can be
calculated as:

M b Vb L
Tsb   ' (2.2)
hb' hb

and the column horizontal shear force, Vc can be determined as:

Vb ( L  0.5hc )
Vc  (2.3).
H
 Figure 2.1. Feature of beam-column connection behaviour

In Equations (2.2) and (2.3), Mb is the beam’s bending moment at the beam-column
interfaces; Vb is the vertical load acting at the beam free end; z b is the the internal
moment arm of the beam cross section at the beam-column interface and hc is the column
width.

Combining Equations (2.1)-(2.3) gives the horizontal shear force acting at the joint area
as:

 L L  0.5hc 
V jh  Vb  '   (2.4).
 hb H 

The average horizontal shear stress,  jh in the joint core can be calculated as:

V jh
 jh  (2.5)
hc b j

where bj is the effective joint shear width and hcbj = Aj is the effective joint shear area.

The vertical joint shear forces can be estimated from the horizontal joint shear force as:

V jh hb
V jv  (Eurocode8-2004) (2.6)
hc

where hb is the height of the beam cross section.

The average vertical normal compressive stress in the joint core is:

Nc
 (2.7)
bc hc

where Nc is the column axial load and bc multiplied by hc is the sectional area of the
column.