EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON BEHAVIOR OF ECCENTRIC BEAM-COLUMN SANDWICH JOINTS UNDER CYCLIC LOADING

In engineering practice, the columns and beams are often designed with different concrete strength. In such cases, it is convenient to cast the joints with the same concrete as those of beams instead of those of columns. Consequently, the so called sandwich joints are resulted in. A few researchers have carried out by means of both static and cyclic loading experiments of such sandwich joints. However, there have not been tests for sandwich joint with eccentricity of a beam and a column. Three specimens of eccentric sandwich joints in middle floor of a frame were designed and loaded under cyclic loading. Their shear capacity, failure modes, and ductility, as well as energy dissipation were analyzed. The results show that the performance of eccentric sandwich joints is good under cyclic loading. X-type reinforcements can be used to partially substitute for stirrups in the joint to bear shear forces. The anchorage of longitudinal bars of beams in eccentric sandwich joints is relatively weak.