Experimental investigation on structural performance of mega column to spandrel beam connections used in high-rise building

In this paper, a new type of concrete mega column to steel spandrel beam connection was developed for the application to a high-rise building under construction in Korea. To transfer shear force from the spandrel beams to columns, shear connectors were used, which are steel subassemblies composed of embed plates, connection plates, dowel bars and bearing plates. Experimental studies were performed using two test specimens with a 1/5 scale; in one test specimen, dowel bars welded on embed plates in a column were used, while in the other test specimen, both dowel bars and bearing plates were used. According to the test results, the design methods of the current design codes used in this study effectively addressed the failure mechanisms of the mega column-spandrel beam connections, and the test specimens developed greater strengths than those evaluated by the current design codes. It was also found that the use of bearing plates at the connections significantly reduces the number of dowel bars used for shear transfer purposes. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.