Damage reported from recent earthquakes has shown the importance of strengthening non-seismically detailed beam-column joints to improve the performance of existing RC frames. This study intends to investigate the effectiveness of finite element modelling for performance assessment of seismic deficient RC frames strengthened with fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites at both the component- and system-level. The first phase of the study focuses on the finite element modelling of experimentally tested FRP-strengthened joints at the component-level. The test specimens vary in terms of the loading type, joint type, strengthening technique, and length and number of FRP layers. Important damage mechanisms in beam-column joints including the shear behaviour and bond-slip effects between the reinforcement and concrete as well as FRP-related mechanisms such as the debonding of FRP sheets, confinement enhancement, and tension stiffening effects are considered in the analyses. In the second phase of the study, the influence of the local behaviour of strengthened joints on the global performance of a two-storey RC frame is investigated. A novel multi-platform modelling procedure is employed to analyze the FRP-strengthened joints in detail while taking into account the system-level performance of the frame. It is demonstrated that the multi-platform modelling method can be used as an effective and practical method to compute the local and global performance of FRP-strengthened RC frames.
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