Experimental Evaluation of Performance of Dry Precast Beam Column Connection

Abstract

Precast concrete construction is being adopted worldwide including India during recent past. In precast concrete construction all the components of structures are produced in controlled environment and it is being transported to the site. At site such individual components are connected appropriately. This leads to many advantages like minimizing cast in place concrete, reduced amount of waste, less requirement of formwork, scaffolding and skilled labors, massive production with better quality, faster construction etc. But connections are the most critical elements of any precast structure, because in past major collapse of precast structure was taken place because of connection failure. In this study, behavior of two different exterior reduced scaled dry precast beam column was studied and its performance is compared with their monolithic counterpart. Precast connections are constructed by using cleat angles stiffened with single stiffener and double stiffeners for connections between beam and column. Performance of specimen is evaluated on the basis of ultimate load carrying capacity, maximum deflection. The deflection is measured along the length of the beam. From the results, it is observed that precast connections are capable to produce ductile behavior but load carrying capacity is lesser than that of the monolithic connection.