Key factors affecting the shear behaviour of exterior RC beam-column joints

An extended parametric study based on nonlinear finite element analyses is performed to assess the key factors affecting the shear behaviour of exterior beam-column joints of unbraced reinforced concrete frames. Extensive results are presented, the major conclusion being that the few shear behaviour models for exterior reinforced concrete beam-column joints available in the literature do not properly account for some of the most influential factors. The present results are also compared with recently published results for interior joints, showing that while some factors have a similar influence on interior and exterior joints others are relevant for only one of these types of joints. This also confirms, numerically, that some resisting mechanisms of exterior joints differ from those of interior joints.