Seismic upgrade of beam-column

connections in existing buildings

using FRP sheets

Prof. S. H. Alsayed
Department of Civil Engineering
King Saud University
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 1

Introduction
Pictures from
Past Earthquakes

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 2

Damage to Interior Beam-Column Joint in a Two-Story
Reinforced Concrete Frame Building
(Turkey Earthquake, August 1999)

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 3

Damage to Interior Beam-Column Joint in a Two-
Story Reinforced Concrete Frame Building
(Taiwan Earthquake, September 1999)

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 4

School Collapse due to Failure at Exterior Beam-
Column Joints
(Taiwan Earthquake, September 1999)

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 5

Typical Corner (Knee) Frame Connection Failure
(Northridge Earthquake, January 1994)

Shear Failure of
Corner Joint

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 6

Close-up of Failure at Exterior Beam-Column Connection
(Turkey Earthquake, August 1999)

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 7

Findings from past earthquakes

Shear failure of beam-column joints is identified

as the principal cause of collapse of most of
the moment-resisting frame buildings.

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 8

Why strengthening is required ?

Strengthening upgrades the seismically

deficient joints in such a way so that joints
achieve adequate shear strength and
ductility to bear any possible moderate to
severe earthquakes.

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 9

 Conventional Existing Strengthening
Techniques

„ Construction of RC or steel jackets.

„ Plain or corrugated steel plates.

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 10

Difficulties associated with existing
conventional techniques

„ Intensive labor
„ Artful detailing
„ Increased dimensions
„ Corrosion protection
„ Special attachments

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 11

 Modern Technique

To overcome the difficulties associated

with conventional techniques recent
research efforts have focused on the Use of
epoxy bonded Fiber Reinforced Polymers
(FRP) in the form of
„ Sheets;
„ Strips; or
„ Bars.

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 12

 Advantages of FRP
„ Shape-free and tailored design characteristics
„ Superior strength/weight and
stiffness/weight ratios
„ High level of chemical inertness and
durability
„ Better fatigue behavior
„ Ease of installation
„ Easy workmanship
Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 13
 Well known FRP Types

„ Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP)

„ Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers (GFRP)
„ Aramid Fiber Reinforced Polymers (AFRP)

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 14

Comparison of FRP with Steel
3.00

Carbon FRP
2.50

2.00
Tensile Strength GPa

1.50

Glass FRP
1.00
Steel

0.50

0.00
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Strain (% )

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 15

 Literature Review
„ Ghobarah and Said (2001, 2002) and Mukherjee and
Joshi (2005) studied experimentally the effect of
FRP in improving shear strength and ductility of
RC beam-column joints under simulated seismic
forces.

„ Gergely et al. (2000) and Antonopoulos &

Triantafillou (2002) presented analytical models for
the prediction of shear capacity of the FRP
strengthened beam-column joints.

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 16

 Scope
„ Considerable research studies are available on
seismically deficient RC beam-column joints. The
study on FRP strengthened RC beam-column
joints are, however, limited.

„ Behavior of seismically excited FRP upgraded

beam-column joints are to be established at
various stages of response e.g. before and after
yielding of reinforcements, crushing of concrete,
fiber fracture or debonding.

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 17

 Objectives
„ To simulate experimentally earthquake loads
and conduct an experimental program to
compare seismic performance of as built
interior connection (control specimen) with
that of FRP-repaired specimen.
„ To evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of
FRP in upgrading the shear strength and
ductility of seismically deficient beam-
column joints.

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 18

 Details of control Specimen
Control specimen was designed to represent pre-
seismic code design construction practice of interior
beam-column joints. For this purpose, a reinforced
concrete interior beam-column sub-assemblage was
constructed with no transverse reinforcement at
the joints. This control specimen, hence, represents
an as-built specimen.
The above control specimen was subjected to cyclic
lateral load history so as to provide the equivalent
of severe earthquake damage.

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 19

Schematic diagram of interior joint specimen
(control specimen)
cm 60
30 cm

Top Box 60 x 60 x 30 cm

m 35 cm
c
60

40 cm

Beam 16 x 35 cm
6-cm Slab
Column 16 x 30 cm
35 cm

60
c m
40 cm

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 20

 Reinforcement details

ACTUATOR SIDE
Upper Column

Near Face Far Face

Stirrup (2)
West Beam Hoop (2) East Beam
Hoop (1)
Stirrup (1)

Stirrup (1)
Hoop (1)
Stirrup (2) Hoop (2)

No Transverse Lower Column

Reinforcement in
the joint region

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 21

The interior joint control specimens

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 22

Experimental set-up

Axial Load
Assembly

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 23

Instrumentation layout for test specimen
Fixed Datum

SP7
SP4
ACTUATOR SIDE

SP3
West Beam I4 East Beam

SP2
I1 I2
LVDT1 LVDT2

I3
SP1

SP5 SP6

ELEVATION VIEW SHOWING SENSOR LAYOUT

Note:
SP = String Potentiometer
I = Inclinometer

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 24

Displacement time history for control specimen

55
45
35
25
15
Displacement (mm)

5
-5
-15
-25
-35
-45
-55
0 2500 5000 7500
Elapsed time (seconds)

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 25

Development of cracks in the control
specimen

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 26

An enlarged view of cracks ( region A) in the joint
core of control specimen

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 27

Shear and flexural cracks in the left beam (region
B) of control specimen

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 28

Shear and flexural cracks in the right beam
(region C) of control specimen

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 29

 Details of Repaired Specimen
After testing of control specimen, the damaged
specimen was then repaired/upgraded using
single layered unidirectional Carbon fiber
reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets under a
proposed scheme of repair.
The repaired specimen was then again tested
under similar cyclic lateral load history.

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 30

Proposed Scheme of repair
(I-Strengthening of joint region)
Top Box

R/C Column
(1) Layer of CFRP Sheet each Side
R/C Slab
(Length = 90 cm & Width = 29 cm)

30 cm 30 cm
Rigid Beam End R/C Beam Rigid Beam End

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 31

 II-Strengthening of beam region

Top Box

R/C Column R/C Slab

(1) Layer U-Wrap of CFRP Sheet (1) Layer U-Wrap of CFRP Sheet
(Length = 74 cm & Width = 60 cm) (Length = 74 cm & Width = 60 cm)

60 cm 60 cm
Rigid Beam End Rigid Beam End

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 32

 III-Strengthening of column region

Top Box

(1) Layer of CFRP Sheet all around the R/C Slab

Column Section 30 cm
(Length = 105 cm & Width = 30 cm)

Rigid Beam End

(1) Layer of CFRP Sheet all around the 30 cm
Column Section R/C Beam Rigid Beam End
(Length = 105 cm & Width = 30 cm)

R/C Column

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 33

Specimen with proposed CFRP
repaired scheme

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 34

Displacement time history for repaired specimen

55
45
35
25
Displacement (mm)

15
5
-5
-15
-25
-35
-45
-55
0 2500 5000 7500 10000 12500
Elapsed time (seconds)

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 35

 Failed specimen
(Failure is attributed to debonding of FRP in the joint)

Bulging (debonding)

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 36

Test Results

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 37

Load-displacement hysteretic plot for
control specimen

80

60

Lateral load (kN) 40

20

0
-55 -45 -35 -25 -15 -5 5 15 25 35 45 55
-20

-40

-60

-80
Lateral displacement (mm)

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 38

Load-displacement hysteretic plot for
repaired specimen

80

60

40
Lateral load (kN)
20

0
-55 -45 -35 -25 -15 -5 5 15 25 35 45 55
-20

-40

-60

-80
Lateral displacement (mm)

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 39

Envelop of hysteretic loops of control and
repaired specimens

80

60

Lateral load (kN) 40

20

0
-55 -45 -35 -25 -15 -5 5 15 25 35 45 55
-20

-40 Control
Repaired
-60

-80
Lateral displacement (mm)

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 40

 Peak test load and maximum ductility

Control Repaired
Parameter
Specimen Specimen
Peak push load 73.07 61.18
Peak pull load 68.84 67.07
Average peak load 70.95 64.12
Maximum Ductility* 1.25 1.52
*The ductility is computed as the ratio of ultimate displacement
to the displacement at first yield of internal steel. The
displacement corresponding to 10% drop in peak load is
considered as the ultimate displacement.
Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 41
 Conclusions
„ Externally bonded FRP sheets provides a high
degree of confinement to the joint and increases its
shear capacity and ductility to great extent.
„ Externally bonded FRP sheets are likely to fail due
to de-bonding of FRP sheets. De-bonding reduces
the confinement of the joint core and allow cracks
to form and widen under the fiber sheets.
„ Technique discussed in this paper is simple to use
and can save a great amount of labor cost and time
needed to execute the rehabilitation of interior
joints.
Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 42
 Recommendations
„ The investigators strongly recommend the use of FRP sheets
for upgrading and strengthening of such interior joints
which have finite probability to experience future
earthquakes.
„ To have efficient and economical use of present method of
rehabilitation, investigators suggest to use present technique
under the supervision of an experienced engineer who is
very well familiar with the limits and the precautions of the
technique and the present material (i.e. FRP).
„ In this paper, one scheme of FRP repair has been presented.
Other schemes of repair are under investigation. It is
possible, some other scheme may prove to be more efficient
than the present scheme of repair.

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 43

 S. H. Alsayed
Y. A. Al-Salloum
T. H. Almusallam
N. A. Siddiqui

Department of Civil Engineering, KSU 44