SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF JOINTS WITH HIGH STRENGTH COLUMNS

The paper deals with the seismic behaviour of column bases and beam-to-column joints made with high strength steel tubular columns subject to seismic loading. A test programme was carried out at the University of Trento with the aim of evaluating the seismic performance of this joints under monotonic, cyclic and random loadings. These loading protocols allowed: the understanding of activation and location of plastic hinges, the evaluation of stiffness and resistance of beam-to-column joints and column bases as well as the quantification of ductility exhibited by some joint components. In detail, cyclic tests were based on the code standard test protocol, whilst random tests utilised displacements provided by Finite Element based simulations of a five-storey steel-concrete composite building subject to seismic loading. The paper reports and describes experimental tests of both beam-to-column joint and column bases.