Investigation of impact behavior of reinforced concrete beam to column connection strengthened with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer strips

Abstract

Reinforced concrete (RC) members may expose to impulsive dynamic loads due to the reasons such as the explosions occurring in the interior or exterior part of them, rockfall, the vehicle crash to the bridges, the collision of masses with the effects of floods and landslide. Many studies have investigated the effects of impulsive dynamic loads on the beam, column, and slab RC structural elements have been investigated in the literature. However, the authors have not encountered any study focused on the impact behavior of beam to column connections of the frames constructing the bearing system of reinforced concrete structures. Therefore, an experimental study has been planned to investigate RC beam impact behavior to column connections strengthened with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The concrete compressive strength, shear reinforcement spacing, CFRP strip spacing, and input impact energy applied to test specimens were taken as experimental variables. The time histories of impact load acting on test specimens, accelerations, displacements, and the strains measured from CFRP strips have been recorded in experiments. The experimental variables' effect on dynamic responses of RC beam to column connections strengthened with CFRP strips subjected to impact load has been interpreted in detail. The study's scope and improved numerical analysis procedure have also been introduced to verify experimental results. Good agreement between numerical and experimental results demonstrated that the presented numerical procedures could be safely used for evaluation of impact behavior of RC beam to column connections strengthened with CFRP strips.