Experimental investigation of damaged circular reinforced concrete columns with pre-tensioned steel hoops

摘要

External confinement can be applied to improve the ductility and energy dissipation capacity of reinforced concrete columns. In this study, the seismic performances of the damaged and undamaged reinforced concrete columns with pre-tensioned steel hoops are investigated. Considering the effects of the damage rate and axial compression ratio, the pseudo-static test was carried on the eight experimental specimens with the reduced scale of 1:1.5. The experimental results show that the ductility and energy dissipation capacity of damaged and undamaged reinforced concrete columns can be effectively improved using the pre-tensioned steel hoops. Moreover, the size effects of columns and the effects of concrete strength are also examined. Finally, based on the experimental results and discussions, several design considerations of pre-tensioned steel hoops for damaged columns are proposed.