Experimental study on seismic performance of an improved precast reinforced concrete column-to-column joint

The seismic performance of an improved column-to-column connection in the precast concrete frame is studied in this article, including five precast specimens and one cast-in-place specimen. The traditional reinforced concrete tenon connection of precast concrete frame columns is replaced by the concrete-filled steel tubular tenon. The welding or cold extrusion sleeve connection of the column longitudinal bars is replaced by rolling straight thread sleeve connection. The six-frame column specimens were fabricated and tested subjected to low-reversed cyclic loading. Efforts have been made to study the characteristics of an improved tenon column joints, such as the failure mode, the hysteretic curves, the skeleton curves, the stiffness degradation, the ductility, and the energy dissipation. The test results show that the seismic performance of the precast columns with the suggested tenon connection is similar to that of the cast-in-place columns.