• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.399-406
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• 2012

Beam-column joints are generally recognized as the critical regions in the moment resisting reinforced concrete (RC) frames subjected to both lateral and vertical loads. As a result of severe lateral load such as seismic loading, the joint region is subjected to horizontal and vertical shear forces whose magnitudes are many times higher than in column and adjacent beam. Consequently, much larger bond and shear stresses are required to sustain these magnified forces. The critical deterioration of potential shear strength in the joint area should not occur until ductile capacity of adjacent beams reach the design demand. In this study, a method was provided to predict the deformability of reinforced concrete beam-column joints failing in shear after the plastic hinges developed at both ends of the adjacent beams. In order to verify the deformability estimated by the proposed method, an experimental study consisting of three joint specimens with varying tensile reinforcement ratios was carried out. The result between the observed and predicted behavior of the joints showed reasonably good agreement.