Seismic Rehabilitation of RC Beam-Column Joints using FRPs: An Experimental, Analytical and Numerical Investigation into the Use of Advanced FRP Materials in the Joints of Concrete Structures

In a Reinforced Concrete (RC) building subjected to lateral loads such as earthquake and wind pressure, the beam to column joints constitute one of the critical regions, especially the exterior ones, and they must be designed and detailed to dissipate large amounts of energy without a significant loss of, strength, stiffness and ductility. This would be achieved when the beam-column joints are designed in such a way that the plastic hinges fonn at a distance away from the column face and the joint region remain elastic. In existing frames, an easy and practical way to implement this behaviour following the accepted design philosophy of the strong-column weak-beam concept is the use a Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) retrofitting system. In the case of damaged buildings, this can be achieved through a FRP repairing system.