EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF SHORT

T-SHAPED COLUMNS WITH DIAGONAL REINFORCING BARS

Xuanming HUANG and Wanlin CAO
China Academy of Building Research, Beijing, 100013, China
huangxm050708@sina.com
Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100022, China
caowl@bjut.edu.cn

In this paper, the use of diagonal reinforcing bars in special-shaped column, as a new seismic design
method, is suggested after the proposition of the special-shaped column with concealed column. Based on
the tests of seismic performance of 3 T-shaped column specimens, the seismic performances of the general
T-shaped column, T-shaped concealed column and T-shaped column with diagonal reinforcing bars are
compared. It is proved that diagonal reinforcing bars provided in short T-shaped columns are able to
significantly improve its seismic performances.

Keywords: column, concealed column, diagonal reinforcing bars, reinforced Concrete, seismic
performance, T-shaped.
Introduction
In traditional constructions, frame structures are widely used in China. The seismic
performance of frame structures can be improved significantly by providing infill walls.
However, there exist edges and corners in inner rooms in traditional frame structures with
rectangle-cross columns, which affect the beauty and comfort of the rooms. Therefore the
frame structures with special shaped columns, such as T-shaped, L-shaped, -shaped and
Z-shaped columns, were developed by Z.R. Cao in 1981 in China, which are able to solve
these problems. In multistory or high-rise frame structures with special shaped columns,
the shear-span ratios of the special shaped columns are generally small, which can be
called short special shaped columns. The short special shaped columns in frame
structures, however, are frequently subjected to combined high bending moments and
high shear stress, which can produce a punching shear failure. Unlike flexural failure, this
type of failure is brittle and catastrophic as the concrete is unable to support the large
tensile stresses that developed. It is obvious that, in design, attention should be paid to
both strength and ductility when punching shear is being considered and new measures of
construction are therefore proposed to improve their seismic performances.
Mallikarjuna and Mahadevappa1992computed reinforced concrete columns with I and
L-shaped sections subjected to axial compression and bending. Dundar et al (1993)
performed experimental studies of arbitrarily shaped reinforced concrete members
subjected to biaxial bending and axial load. Cao (1995) performed the experimental
investigation on seismic performances of frame with special shaped columns. He
7th International Conference on Tall Buildings. Editor: Francis TK AU
Copyright c 2009 by Research Publishing Services :: www.rpsonline.com.sg
978-962-8014-19-4
7th International Conference on Tall Buildings
established a dynamic model for the structures and presented design methods for the
control of weaker stories. Cao (1996) presented the state-of the art development of
frame structures with special shaped RC columns. Cao (2002) preformed analytical and
experimental studies on 12 -shaped, L-shaped, T-shaped Column specimens of smaller
shear span ratio with concealed columns. He analyzed the influence of axial load ratio on
capacity, stiffness and ductility of concealed columns and discussed the use of concealed
column in improving the seismic capacity of -shaped, L-shaped, T-shaped columns. In
addition, the failure modes of concealed and unconcealed column specimens were
compared, and the range of applications, the design method and the seismic construction
of the -shaped, L-shaped, T-shaped columns with concealed columns are proposed.
1. Experimental Plan
1.1 Experimental setup and instrumentation
The purposes of this experimental study are (1) to demonstrate the ability of diagonal
reinforcement arrangement to enhance the seismic performances of short T-shaped
column and (2) to compare the seismic performances of the general T-shaped column,
T-shaped column with concealed column and T-shaped column with diagonal reinforcing
bars. Three short T-shaped column specimens (with a shear span ratio 1.75) were tested.
Specimen DZT-1 is a T-shaped column; Specimen DZT-2 is a T-shaped column with
concealed column; and Specimen DZT-3 is a T-shaped column with diagonal reinforcing
bars. The test was performed using a 50-ton jack (see Fig. 1). A constant axial load N of
320kN was applied at the geometry center of the column by the hydraulic jack; Bending
of the special shaped column was accomplished by applying a horizontal force F at the
free end of the column. A displacement gauge was used to measure the deformation at the
free end. The loading procedure consisted of two phases as shown in Fig.2. The first
phase was load control, where the specimen was subjected to an increasing load up to the
first yield of the steel bars. The corresponding yield displacement at the free end was
determined. After the column steel bars reached the yield strain, the second loading phase,
which was a displacement control mode, was started.
1.2 Configurations of Specimens
The short special shaped specimens are one third scale models of half of a typical column.
The overall dimensions and reinforcement layout of a typical scaled down short T-shaped
column specimen is shown in Fig. 1. The base of the specimen is 350`300mm
2
, with
length of 1200mm. The height of special shaped column specimen is 520mm. The shapes
of the section of the three T-shaped column specimens are shown in Fig. 3. The free end
of the column specimen is 240`240mm
2
and the height is 200mm. The horizontal load
was applied at the center of the free end.
1.3 Materials properties
The concrete have a compressive strength of approximately 41.2MN/m
2
.The diameters of
main reinforcing bars are 10, 8 and 6.5mm, with that of diagonal reinforcing bars is
12mm.
210
7th International Conference on Tall Buildings
3
0
0
+80 +80 !?0 !?0
!?00
+
?
0
?
0
8
?
0
+

3
0
d`:'umut _u_
|u:
:`u' :hud o'umu
o::d `uo`u_ |u:

loading cycles
load Control
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 9 8
-4
-5
2
0
1
5
4
3
-3
-2
-1
d
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

d
u
c
t
i
l
i
t
y
Displacement Control

Fig. 1. Test set-up and specimen. Fig. 2. Loading procedure

Fig.3. shapes of the section of T-shaped column specimens
2. Experiment results
In this section, the performance of three T-shaped column specimens is described and the
effectiveness of concealed and diagonal reinforcing bars in improving the seismic
performance of special shaped columns is evaluated.
2.1 Specimen DZT-1
The first diagonal crack was observed during the first cycle at the abdomen of the column
at the load of 27 kN in positive loading direction. In the second cycle, 50 kN was applied
to the specimen, new flexural and flexural-shear cracks formed in the middle part of the
abdomen. During the third cycle, the diagonal shear cracks reached the bottom of the
column, where minor spalling of concrete was found. In the fifth cycles, yielding of main
reinforcing bars occurred and the width of a shear crack in the middle of the specimen
reached 0.7mm. When the specimen was pushed, the shear cracks opened and the lateral
load-carrying capacity deteriorated significantly. The specimen reached a maximum load
of 112 kN in positive loading direction while 115 kN in the opposite direction. The test
was halted at the displacement of 15mm as the load-carrying capacity of the specimen
was greatly reduced.
In effect, when pushing the column specimen, shear failure of the abdomen part and bond
slip failure of reinforcing bars at the column bottom occurred. The final failure pattern is
shown in Fig. 4. Examining the hysteretic performance of the specimen showed
considerable pinching, severe strength deterioration and stiffness degradation, as shown
in Fig. 5. Bond slip which associates with a more brittle type of failure when compared
211
7th International Conference on Tall Buildings
with shear failure occurred earlier and caused a higher rate of strength deterioration.

- 150
- 100
- 50
0
50
100
150
- 25 - 20 - 15 - 10 - 5 0 5 10 15 20 25
F( kN)
U( mm)

Fig. 4. Failure pattern of specimen DZT-1 Fig. 5. Column top loaddisplacement of specimen DZT-1
2.2 Specimen DZT-2
Specimen DZT-2 was subjected to the same loading sequence as Specimen DZT-1. The
first crack occurred during the first cycle at the load of 33 kN, with an increment of 5 kN
compared with that of Specimen DZT-1. The reason is that the first crack was generally a
diagonal crack and the concealed columns in Specimen DZT-2 have the ability to leash
concrete and control the occurrence of cracks in the abdomen part of the specimen. In the
second cycle, a load of 70 kN was applied to the specimen. Diagonal shear cracks
appeared in the abdomen of the specimen. During the next cycle, there appeared minor
spalling of concrete at the bottom of the column. In the fourth cycle, plenty of slim shear
cracks appeared in the middle part of the specimen, and yielding of the main reinforcing
bars at the bottom of column specimen started. In the following cycle, the lateral
load-carrying capacity of the column specimen deteriorated with a maximum load of 120
kN in the positive loading direction and 130 kN in the opposite direction. The specimen
reached the maximum displacement of 25mm.
Although the final failure mode of Specimen DZT-2 was due to shear failure of the
abdomen part and bond slip failure of reinforcing bars at the column bottom, the average
maximum load was increased by 10.3 due to the use of concealed columns at the edge
of the T-shaped column specimen. The final failure pattern of Specimen DZT-2 is shown
in Fig. 6. The hysteretic performance of the specimen is shown in Fig. 7.
2.3 Specimen DZT-3
Specimen DZT-3 was subjected to the same loading process as the previous specimens.
The first crack occurred during the first cycle at the load of 45 kN while it was pulled,
with a load increment of 18 kN. The reason is that the first diagonal crack appeared in the
middle part of Specimen DZT-3 and the diagonal reinforcing bars located at the position
212
7th International Conference on Tall Buildings
can leash concrete and control the occurrence of cracks than that of the concealed
columns in Specimen DZT-2.
- 150
- 100
- 50
0
50
100
150
- 25 - 20 - 15 - 10 - 5 0 5 10 15 20 25
F( KN)
U( mm)

Fig. 6. Failure pattern of specimen DZT-2 Fig. 7. Column top loaddisplacement of specimen DZT-2
In the second cycle, diagonal shear cracks occurred at the load of 90 kN, and they reach
the bottom of the column at the load of 115 kN. During the fourth cycle, spalling of the
concrete occurred at the bottom of the column and the main reinforcing bars and the
diagonal reinforcing bars at the bottom of column specimen all entered into the state of
yield. In the following cycle, the lateral load-carrying capacity of the specimen
deteriorated slowly, with a maximum load of 125 kN and 130kN in the positive and
negative loading directions respectively, and eventually reached the maximum
displacement of 25mm.
Although the final failure mode of Specimen DZT-3 was also due to shear failure of the
abdomen part and bond slip failure of reinforcing bars at the column bottom, the overall
T-shaped column specimen performance is much more ductile compared with the general
T-shaped column Specimen DZT-1 and the T-shaped column with concealed columns
DZT-2. The average maximum load was increased by 12.2 compared with Specimen
DZT-1, due to the presence of diagonal reinforcing bars in the column. The final failure
pattern of Specimen DZT-3 is shown in Fig. 8. The hysteretic performance of the
specimen is shown in Fig. 9.
3. Discussions
In this section, load-carrying capacity, the hysteretic performance, energy dissipation,
stiffness degradation and ductility levels of the tested specimens are compared and
discussed. The load-carrying capacity of specimens is shown in Table 1. F
c
is the load
when the first crack occurred; F
y
is the load when the specimen yielded; F
u
is the load
when the specimen reached the maximum load. Specimen DZT-2 showed almost 10.3
increase in the load-carrying capacity compared with Specimen DZT-1. Specimen DZT-3
reached a higher load level, and maintained the load-carrying capacity at displacement
213
7th International Conference on Tall Buildings
levels much higher than the other two specimens.

- 150
- 100
- 50
0
50
100
150
- 25 - 20 - 15 - 10 - 5 0 5 10 15 20 25
F( KN)
U( mm)

Fig. 8. Failure pattern of specimen DZT-3 Fig. 9. Column top loaddisplacement of specimen DZT-3
The envelopes of the hysteretic loops of the tested specimens are shown in Fig. 10. The
area enclosed by a hysteretic loop at a give cycle represents the energy dissipated by the
specimen during this cycle. The capability of a structure to dissipate energy has a strong
influence on its response to earthquake loads. The total energy dissipated by a structure
consist of (1) energy dissipated by the steel reinforcement; (2) energy dissipated by
friction along existing cracks in concrete; and (3) energy dissipated during the formation
of new cracks. Specimen DZT-2 showed 45.5 increase in the energy dissipation
compared with Specimen DZT-1, while Specimen DZT-3 showed 69.0 increase
compared with Specimen DZT-1.
The column stiffness was approximately obtained from the slope of the peak-to-peak line
in each loop. Test results indicated that stiffness degradation was due to various factors
such as non-linear deformations, flexural and shear cracking, slippage of reinforcement,
and loss of cover. The stiffness degradation of specimens is shown in Fig. 11. It is
observed that these three specimens showed almost equal initial stiffness because the
sizes of these three specimens are the same and the specimens were made of the same
concrete. After yielding of column specimens, comparing the peak-to-peak stiffness of
tested columns shows that the stiffness degradation of Specimen DZT-1 was higher than
that of Specimens DZT-2 and DZT-3. Compared the load-deformations of various
specimens, DZT-3 showed a higher ductility capacity and with a more ductile failure
mode.
4. Conclusions
Concealed columns and using diagonal reinforcing bars in T-shaped columns are all
effective ways to increase the seismic performance of T-shaped columns. Compared with
Specimen DZT-1, the ductility of Specimen DZT-2 was improved significantly, with a
more ductile failure mode. Specimen DZT-3 has the highest ductility capacity when
compared with other specimens. Furthermore, other seismic performances, such as
214
7th International Conference on Tall Buildings
load-carrying capacity, hysteretic performance, energy dissipation and stiffness
degradation are also effectively improved by providing diagonal reinforcing bars in short
T-shaped columns. More studies are required for establishing the design standards and for
determining the location and shape of the diagonal reinforcing bars for T-shaped column.

- 150
- 100
- 50
0
50
100
150
- 30 - 20 - 10 0 10 20 30
DZT- 1
DZT- 2
DZT- 3
F( kN)
U( mm)

0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
0 0. 01 0. 02 0. 03 0. 04 0. 05 0. 06
DZT- 1
DZT- 2
DZT- 3
( r ad)
K( kN/ mm)

Fig. 10. Envelopes of the hysteretic loops Fig. 11. Stiffness degradation curves
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges the supports from the Structural Lab of the College of
Architecture and Civil Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, China.
References
Dundar, C. and Sahin, B. Arbitrarily shaped reinforced concrete members subject to biaxial
bending and axial load. Computers and Structures 49(4), 643-662 (1993).
Mallikarjuna and Mahadevappa, P. Computer aided analysis of reinforced concrete columns
subjected to axial compression and bending- I L-shaped sections. Computers and Structures v 44
n 5p. 1121-1138 (1992).
W. L. Cao. Experimental Research on Earthquake Resist And Performance of Frame with
Special-shaped Column. First International Conference on Open Building and Structural
Engineering, NanJing, 18-20: 381-386 (1995).
W. L. Cao. Present Research Situation & Development of Frame Structure with Special-Shaped
R.C. Columns. Proceedings of '96 International Seminar on China Affordable Housing.141-146
(1996).
W. L. Cao. Experiment and Analysis of Seismic Performance of the Special Shaped Columns with
Concealed Columns. Jian Zhu Jie Gou Xue Bao. 23 (1): 16-20 (2002).
Table 1. Loading capacity of specimens
Positive load Negative load Average value of load
Spec. No.
F
c
/kN F
y
/kN F
u
/kN F
c
/kN F
y
/kN F
u
/kN F
c
/kN F
y
/kN F
u
/kN
DZT-1 27.06 94.72 111.72 28.95 97.24 115.18 28.01 95.98 113.45
DZT-2 33.35 102.89 120.20 37.44 112.02 129.96 35.40 107.46 125.08
DZT-3 45.00 105.73 124.92 46.88 112.64 129.64 45.94 109.19 127.28

215