The influence of construction joint on the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete frame structure

Abstract

A new model that can simulate the behavior of construction joint subjected to seismic forces was proposed. Nonlinear time-history analysis was carried out for reinforced concrete regular frame structures designed in different seismic intensity regions as well as with different height-to-width ratios. Two kinds of numerical models are adopted to simulate the seismic behavior of each frame, one with construction joint using the new proposed model and the other without construction joint using the conventional model. Results show that the influence of construction joint on the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete frame is strongly related to structural nonlinearity. It may increase the top displacement and the inter-story drift, change the inter-story drift distributions, and exacerbated the local reaction of key members. The influence of construction joint cannot be ignored for structures with low emergency capacity against major earthquake. Seismic design suggestions are proposed from the aspect of calculation analysis method.