Effect of fire on prefabricated concrete beam column connections

Abstract

The objective of this work is to study the performance of the beam column connections in precast structures exposed to fire. Three different connections were considered for the study. The first one is monolithic and the remaining two are precast specimens joined through hybrid and corbel connections. This study is carried out in two phases. The first part of this study is experimental investigation of three beam-column specimens subjected to axial load until failure. The second part is experimental investigation of the beam-column specimens exposed to fire and axial load. The results suggest that irrespective of the fire, among the monolithic, hybrid and corbel connections of beam-column specimens, the specimen with corbel connection has the best performance in terms of toughness of the joint.