Experimental Investigation of the Seismic Behaviour of Precast Structures with Pinned Beam-to-Column Connections

Experimental results from three series of experiments that have been conducted at the Laboratory for Earthquake Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, on assemblies or subassemblies of precast structures with dry, pinned beam-to-column connections are reported: the first series concerned shaking table tests on one-storey, practically full-scale 3D specimens composed of linear precast elements; in the second series, monotonic and cyclic pure shear tests were performed on pinned beam-to-column connections; and in the third series, shaking table tests were conducted on a part of a frame composed of a column and a beam. Various parameters were examined, as the diameter of the dowels, the number of dowels and the distance of the dowels from the beam’s front. The effect of the dynamic loading on the behaviour of the connections was investigated by comparing the results of the dynamic tests with the corresponding results of the cyclic tests.