Effect of stress levels applied to pre-stressing strands on post-tensioned beam-to-column connections

This article presents an experiment study on precast beam-to-column connections with 15.24?mm diameter pre-stressing strands. Stress levels of 40%, 50% and 60% tensile stress were applied to the pre-stressing strands. Following the experiments, precast specimens were compared with those of the reference specimen. The load capacity of the precast specimen stressed at the level of 60% tensile stress reached 98% of the load capacity of the reference specimen, and the amount of energy dissipated by the same specimen reached 48% of that dissipated by the reference specimen. The stiffness of the same precast specimen at 1.5% drift was observed to be 71% of the reference specimen at the same drift. In the experimental studies, it was seen that the maximum stress determined in this specimen, which pre-stressing strands provide connection, reached approximately 75% of the tensile strength of the pre-stressing strands. It could not be said that topping concrete in experiment specimens increased strength. Copyright (c) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.