• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.203-212
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• 2008

The cyclic behavior and energy dissipation mechanism of short coupling beams with various reinforcement layouts were studied. For numerical analysis of coupling beams, nonlinear truss model was used. The results of numerical analysis showed that the coupling beams with conventional reinforcement layout showed pinched cyclic behavior without significant energy dissipation, whereas the coupling beams with diagonal reinforcement exhibited stable cyclic behavior without pinching. The energy dissipation of the coupling beams was developed mainly by diagonal reinforcing bars developing large plastic strains rather than concrete which is a brittle material Based on this result, simplified equations for evaluating the energy dissipation of coupling beams were developed. For verification, the predicted energy dissipation was compared with the test results. The results showed that the simplified equations can predict the energy dissipation of short coupling beams with shear span-to-depth ratio less than 1.25 with reasonable precision, addressing various design parameters such as reinforcement layout, shear span-to-depth ratio, and the magnitude of inelastic displacement. The proposed energy equations can be easily applied to performance-based seismic evaluation and design of reinforced concrete structures and members.