Ultimate Capacity of Joints in Precast Large Panel Concrete Buildings

In this report, topics related to the design of precast large panel concrete buildings to withstand seismic loading are treated.

In the beginning of the report, a brief description of the capacity design principle is given. The basis of this principle is to design a structure to assure a desirable plastic mechanism in case of severe loading resulting in plastic deformations.

The following part of the report deals with the ultimate capacities of joints between precast concrete elements. The aim is to develop a set of solutions for the capacities of standard joints in precast large panel walls, which will enable the use of the capacity design principle on this structural type.

As the main method to determine the capacity of joints between elements, the theory of plasticity is used. It is assumed that concrete and joint grout can be modelled as modified Coulomb materials. With this assumption, expressions for the ultimate capacity of reinforced keyed and plane joints loaded in shear and horizontal wall joints in compression are determined.

Finally, a semi-empirical method to determine the capacity of confined concrete wall or column cross sections is shown.

All solutions given in this report are compared with experimental results found in the literature or determined by experiments done in conjunction to the present investigation.