Investigation into a beam-column connection in precast concrete

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Pre-cast sections have the advantages of structural efficiency, better quality controland less construction time, which enable them to be widely used in building structures.The connections of pre-cast buildings play a vital role for the stability and strength ofstructures.Nowadays, more attention is drawn to the aesthetical appearance of buildingstructures, especially by architects. The Hidden Corbel Connection (HCC) was thendeveloped to make the building structures stable and aesthetically pleasing. Amodified HCC was designed and investigated in this study.Amongst all the mechanisms in the connection zone, the mechanism of the endanchorage length of tension reinforcement plays a key role in the economy of theconnection and is hence further investigated.In order to investigate whether the end anchorage length of tension reinforcement canbe reduced for a simply supported beam, a 2D non-linear finite element model is usedto analyze the stress distribution inside the connection zone. Based on the stressdistribution in the connection zone, the tensile force was calculated at the face of thesupport, which directly correlates to the required end anchorage length of tensionreinforcement.The confinement in the connection zone increases the bond stress, which in turnreduces the required anchorage length of tension reinforcement. Therefore, a 3Dmodel is used to analyze the region inside the modified HCC to find the position of thebest confinement.By comparing the finite element (FE) results with Eurocode 2 (2004), and SABS 0100-1 (2000), it is demonstrated that the FE results require the shortest anchoragelength, while the longest anchorage length is specified in SABS 0100-1 (2000). Basedon the comparison between the FE results and the design codes, a laboratoryexperiment was then performed to determine if the end anchorage length of tensionreinforcement can be reduced. Four beams with different support conditions and withdifferent end anchorage length of tension reinforcement were tested. The results ofthe laboratory experiment indicate that the end anchorage length for simply supportedbeams can be shortened from the specification of SABS 0100-1 (2000).

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University