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Cyclic behaviour of interior beam–column joints reinforced with plain bars

The seismic damages commonly observed on beam–column joints of old reinforced concrete structures, built with plain bars and without proper detailing, justifies the need to further study the behaviour of this type of structures. The response of these structures when loaded cyclically, as occurs during the earthquakes, is partially controlled by the bond properties between the reinforcing bars and the surrounding concrete. This paper presents the results of an experimental campaign of unidirectional cyclic tests carried out on six full‐scale beam–column joints built with plain bars. These joint specimens are representative of existing reinforced concrete structures, that is, built without adequate reinforcement detailing for seismic demands. For comparison, an additional specimen is built with deformed bars and tested. The seven specimens are designed and detailed to allow the investigation of the influence of bond properties, lapping of the longitudinal bars in columns and beams, bent‐up bars in the beams, slab contribution and concrete strength. The lateral force–drift relationships, global dissipated energy evolution, contribution of the joint, beams and columns to the global dissipated energy, ductility, equivalent damping, final damage observed, homogenized reinforced concrete damage index, displacement components, curvature evolutions and Eurocode requirements are presented and discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.