Experimental Investigation of Friction-Damped Self-Centering Prestressed Concrete Beam-Column Connections with Hidden Corbels

This paper presents the experimental investigation of the hysteretic behavior of a self-centering prestressed concrete (SCPC) beam-to-column connection under cyclic loading. The SCPC connection utilizes unbonded posttensioned (PT) tendons to provide self-centering capacity. Friction dampers (FDs) are placed in the upper and lower parts of the beam-to-column connections to provide energy dissipation ability. A hidden corbel (HC) is used to provide sufficient vertical shear capacity and to facilitate construction of the beam and column assembly. A series of tests were performed on two specimens to investigate the effects of various design parameters, such as FD details (e.g., type of friction material, number of friction bolts, thickness of external friction plates, friction forces, etc.), the number of and initial force of the PT tendons, and corbel dimensions, on the performance of the connection under cyclic loading. The test results indicate that the friction damped self-centering prestressed concrete beam-column connections with hidden corbels and properly designed FDs can achieve significant and reliable energy dissipation levels while maintaining self-centering capabilities.