Cyclic Performance of Steel Plate-Reinforced High Toughness-Concrete Coupling Beams with Different Span-to-Depth Ratios

摘要

In coupled shear wall or core wall systems, reinforced-concrete (RC) coupling beams are crucial to the seismic performance of the overall structure. These coupling RC beams, however, tend to undergo brittle shear failure, especially those with a small span-to-depth ratio (i.e.,deep coupling beams). In this paper, an alternative RC coupling beam with high seismic resistance and high ductile behavior is proposed. The coupling beam is made of high-toughness concrete reinforced with an embedded vertical steel plate as well as steel bars. Three proposed steel plate-reinforced high toughness-concrete (PRHTC) coupling beams with different span-to-depth ratios (l/h=1.0, 1.5, and 2.0) were tested. All three PRHTC coupling beams behaved in a ductile manner with good hysteretic behavior and large energy-dissipating capacity. Both the embedded steel plates and the high-toughness concrete contributed greatly to the high performance of the PRHTC coupling beams. The test results also show that load-carrying capacity of the PRHTC coupling beams increases as the span-to-depth ratio decreased whereas deformation ductility remains stable.