AN EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON HYSTERETIC BEHAVIOR OF RC BEAMS UNDER SIGNIFICANT GRAVITY LOADS

Özet

In this study, hysteretic behavior of RC beams with and without significantgravity load effects are investigated. To this purpose, an experimental program iscarried out in which gravity loads are applied by force controlled test procedurewhereas cyclic loads are applied by displacement controlled test procedure. Theresults of tests with gravity load effect are compared with the results of controlspecimens with increasing displacement loading profile. Experimentally observeddamage states and deformation demands are compared with the respective valuesproposed by Turkish Seismic Design Code. It is found that, the loading procedurewith significant gravity load effect leads to the formation of unidirectional plastichinges. Besides, the deformation capacities of the specimens are found to bemuch higher than the code based deformation capacities.