Cyclic behaviour of end-plate beam-to-column composite joints

An experimental research program on end-plate beam-to-column composite joints under cyclicrnloading is presented. The major focus relates to the identification of the contribution of the concreternconfinement in composite columns to the behaviour of the joint, on internal nodes and external nodes,rntogether with an assessment of degradation of strength and stiffness in successive loading cycles. From thernexperimental results it was possible to identify the various failure modes and to fit the correspondingrnhysteretic curves to the Richard-Abbott and Mazzolani models. These curve-fitting exercises highlighted thernneed to adapt both models, either for improved ease of application, or to deal with some aspects previously notrncovered by those models.