PUSHOVER ANALYSIS OF RC FRAMES WITH SUBSTANDARD BEAM-COLUMN JOINTS

Abstract

Recent earthquakes in developing countries showed that the failure of substandard beam-column joints often contributes to heavy damage or collapse of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings. Static nonlinear pushover analysis is one of the methods to evaluate the seismic capacity of RC frames/buildings. However, the pushover analysis commonly neglects the failure at beam-column joints because of the complex behavior. In this study, a nonlinear pushover analysis procedure considering the failure of exterior beam-column joints without shear reinforcement is presented. Specifically, the performance limit is assumed as a point at the failure of beam-column joints from the literature of experimental study and a simplified backbone of joint shear stress-strain response. The proposed analysis procedure was applied to one RC frame with substandard beam-column joints representing a collapsed building due to a recent earthquake in Indonesia. The proposed analysis procedure was applicable to estimate the seismic capacity of RC frames considering the failure of exterior beam-column joints.