Shaking Table Tests of RC Structure with Replaceable Coupling Beams
Cong Chen1, Xilin Lu2, Xin Li2
1 Chinese-German Institute of Engineering, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology
Zhejiang 310023, P. R. China
1989chencong@tongji.edu.cn
2 State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University
Shanghai 200092, P. R. China
lxlst@tongji.edu.cn
2010lixin@tongji.edu.cn
Abstract. With the idea of earthquake resilient structure, an innovative replaceable coupling beam (RCB) for RC shear wall structures has been proposed by the authors, in the purpose of increasing the earthquake resilience of RC shear wall structures. The central part of the conventional RC coupling beam is replaced by a replaceable shear/flexure yielding device so that the RCB acts as a structural “fuse”. The damage concentrates in the central part during the earthquake, and the damaged part could be replaced conveniently after the earthquake. Two 1/5-scaled 5-story three-dimensional RC shear wall structures, one with conventional RC coupling beams, another with RCBs, were designed, constructed and tested on the shaking table. The failure pattern, dynamic properties, and earthquake responses, such as the acceleration, displacement, story force, and strain responses, are compared for the two structures. The test results demonstrate that compared with the structure with conventional RC coupling beams (S5n), the seismic performance of the structure with RCBs (S5r) was improved. The elastic lateral stiffness of S5r was slightly lower than that of S5n. Under minor earthquakes, two structures kept roughly elastic, and the responses of two structures were close. Under moderate earthquakes, in S5n the cracks firstly occurred at the coupling beams and then occurred in the base of wall piers, and in S5r the replaceable devices yielded and other structural components kept intact. In addition, the replaceable devices in S5r suffering the main damage during the earthquake can be replaced conveniently after the earthquake. The RC shear wall structure installed with RCBs can be applied as a new type of earthquake resilient structure in engineering practice.
Keywords: Shaking table test, Resilient, Shear wall, Reaplaceble, Seismic performance.
