STUDY ON THE SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF RECYCLED AGGREGATE CONCRETE-FILLED LIGHTWEIGHT STEEL TUBE FRAME WITH DIFFERENT ASSEMBLY JOINTS

Abstract

In order to investigate the construction of column-to-beam joints and to understand theeffect of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) and cross-section of beams and columns on theseismic performance of recycled aggregate concrete-filled light steel tubular frame structure, fournew types of assembly joints were proposed in this paper. A low cyclic loading test of six framespecimens was carried out. The failure characteristic, load bearing capacity, hysteresis property,ductility, strength and stiffness degradation, and energy dissipation were analysed. The damageprocess of the specimen was simulated using the ABAQUS software, and the results agreed wellwith those obtained from the experiments. The results showed that the construction pathway of thejoints exhibited significant influence on the seismic performance of the frame. The proposedreinforced joint (using angle steel and stiffeners) significantly improved the bearing capacity,stiffness and energy dissipation capacity of the recycled aggregate concrete-filled steel tube frame.The seismic performance of the steel frame was improved, while the energy dissipation capacityincreased by 635.7% using RAC filled in the steel tubes. Finally, by appropriately increasing thesize of cross-section on the beams and columns can improve the bearing capacity, stiffness andductility of the structure.