Improving ductility of non-seismically designed RC columns

Abstract

An experimental investigation of the improvement of ductile behaviour of non-seismically designed reinforced concrete (RC) columns with various configurations of transverse reinforcement is presented in this paper. Emphasis is placed on the effects of the configuration of transverse reinforcement on the enhancement of ductility and improvements in seismic performance of RC columns. It has been shown that adopting the combination of traditional non-seismic detailing of links with the proposed transverse ties in the column sections can effectively enhance the ductility capacity and energy dissipation ability, thus improving the seismic behaviour of non-seismically designed RC columns, while the construction cost and difficulty will not be increased significantly.