Title: Reinforced Concrete Columns and 2500 Year Return Period Earthquakes in Australia

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Publication: CIA

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Date: 2/13/2011

Abstract:
The detailing of reinforced concrete columns in Australia is typically equivalent to that in “non-ductile” frames in California. For single longitudinal bars, the tie spacings are required to be a maximum of the smaller of 15db and Dc, where db is the diameter of the bar, and Dc is the smaller column dimension. Also, lap splices are usually located immediately above the joint region. In this paper, results from tests and analyses performed at the University of Melbourne, together with those from other researchers, are used to explore the likely behaviour of columns in reinforced concrete moment resisting frames subjected to a 2500 year return period earthquake. Different site conditions are considered when estimating the likely displacement demand. The displacement capacity of the columns is shown to be related to the following variables: section size, length of column, steel percentage, presence of splice, axial load level and the amount of confinement (or restraint to buckling provided for the longitudinal bars). The results show that in some situations potentially catastrophic results would be expected.