Performance evaluation of different strengthening measures for exterior RC beam-column joints under opening moments

Devastating RC structural failures in the past have identified that the behavior of beam-column joints is more critical and significantly governs the global structural response under seismic loading. The congestion of reinforcement at the beam-column joints with other constructional difficulties has escalated the attention required for strengthening RC beam-column joints. In this context, numerous studies have been carried out in the past, which mainly focused on jacketing the joints with different materials. However, there is no comparative study of different approaches used to strengthen RC beam-column joints, from efficiency and cost perspective. This paper presents a detailed investigation carried out to study the various strengthening schemes of exterior RC beam-column joints, viz., steel fiber reinforcement, carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strengthening, steel haunch strengthening, and confining joint reinforcement. The effectiveness of each scheme was evaluated experimentally. These specimens were tested under horizontal loading that produced opening moments on the joints and their behavior was studied with emphasis on strength, displacement ductility, stiffness, and failure mechanism. Special attention was given to the study of crack-width.