Experimental study on seismic behavior of cast in-site RC frame with construction joints

To investigate the effects of construction joints on seismic behaviors, an experiment for two-bay, two-storied RC frame structure with construction joints under low cyclic loading was conducted. Failure characteristics, bearing capacity, hysteretic curves, skeleton curves, displacement ductility, stiffness degradations and residual deformation of members were analyzed and compared with those of the monolithic cast frame. Test results show that the displacement ductility ratio of RC frame with construction joints is about 11% lower than that of the monolithic cast frame. And the relative deformation of RC frame with construction joints is about 4.1%～5.1% greater than that of the monolithic cast frame. If construction joints are treated carelessly, the span of weakness is easy to form in the concrete frame. While the effects of construction joints on bearing capacity and stiffness degradation of the frames are indistinctive.