• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.741-751
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• 2010

An experimental study was performed to investigate the earthquake resistance of the beam-column connections as a part of a precast concrete moment-resisting frame that uses precast concrete U-shaped shells for the beams. Five full-scale precast concrete specimens and one conventional monolithic concrete specimen were tested under cyclic loading. The parameters for this test were the reinforcement ratio, stirrup spacing, and end-strengthening details of the precast beam shell. The test results showed that regardless of the test parameters, the precast concrete beam-column connections showed good load-carrying capacity and deformation capacity, which were comparable to those of conventional monolithic concrete specimen. However, at large deformations, the beam-column connections of the precast concrete specimens were subjected to severe strength degradation due to diagonal shear cracks and the bond-slip of re-bars at the joint region. For this reason, the energy dissipation capacity and stiffness of the precast concrete specimens were significantly less than those of the cast-in-place specimen.