Comparative experimental study on seismic retrofitting methods for full-scale interior reinforced concrete frame joints

This study presents an experiment and analysis to compare the seismic behavior of full-scale reinforced concrete beam -column joint strengthened by prestressed steel strips, externally bonded steel plate, and CFRP sheets. For experimental investigation, five specimens, including one joint without any retrofitting, one joint retrofitted by externally bonded steel plate, one joint retrofitted by CFRP sheets, and two joints retrofitted by prestressed steel strips, were tested under cyclic -reserve loading. The failure mode, strain response, shear deformation, hysteresis behavior, energy dissipation capacity, stiffness degradation and damage indexes of all specimens were analyzed according to experimental study. It was found that prestressed steel strips, steel plate and CFRP sheets improved shear resistance, energy dissipation capacity, stiffness degradation behavior and reduced the shear deformation of the joint core area, as well as changed the failure pattern of the specimen, which led to the failure mode changed from the combination of flexural failure of beams and shear failure of joints core to the flexural failure of beams. In addition, the beam -column joint retrofitted by steel plate exhibited a high bearing capacity, energy consumption capacity and low damage index compared with the joint strengthened by prestressed steel strip, and the prestressed steel strips reinforced joint showed a high strength, energy dissipation capacity and low shear deformation, stirrups strains and damage index compared to the CFRP reinforced joint, which indicated that the frame joints strengthened with steel plate exhibited the most excellent seismic behavior, followed by the prestressed steel strips.