Seismic Performance of Replaceable Friction Energy Consuming Steel Joints for Assembled RC Beams and Columns

In response to issues such as dispersed damage and difficult repair of assembled RC beam-column joints after earthquakes, this paper proposes an assembled (Reinforced Concrete) RC beam-column replaceable friction energy-consuming steel joint. The steel joint consists of a friction energy dissipation system and a U-shaped shear-resistant steel plate system. Numerical simulations using ABAQUS software were conducted on one cast-in-place joint and six steel joints under low-cycle reciprocating loading. The simulation results comparing the cast-in-place joint with the steel joints show that the steel joints have comparable initial stiffness and ultimate bearing capacity, but stronger energy dissipation capacity. After seismic action, the main structure remains in an elastic working state, achieving toughness and seismic resistance of the structure. The simulation analysis of the effect of the design bearing capacity coefficient μ on the functional recoverability and concentrated energy dissipation performance of the structure shows that energy dissipation is mainly concentrated in the steel joints. With the increase of the bearing capacity coefficient, the total energy dissipated in the steel joints initially increases and then decreases, but the proportion of energy consumption of steel joints will continue to decrease. Under the premise of meeting the demand of bearing capacity, selecting a reasonable bearing capacity coefficient can make the energy consumption of the steel joints reach over 95%, thereby achieving the purpose of centralized energy dissipation of the structure and rapid recovery of the functional use after earthquakes.