EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON ENHANCEMENT OF SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF REINFORCED CONCRETE COLUMNS BASED ON ARRANGEMENT OF LONGITUDINAL REINFORCEMENT

This paper presents flexural reinforced concrete single-column structures which will exhibit better seismic performance than conventional reinforced concrete columns. Some simple ideas for improving seismic performance were proposed based on the arrangement of longitudinal reinforcement. Cyclic loading tests were conducted for comparison of ductility capacity and damage level among the columns designed with the proposed new concepts and conventional one. Test results showed that the termination of some longitudinal bars near single-column base according to the actual bending moment action, the partial unbonding of longitudinal bars in the footing and the anti-buckled longitudinal bar arrangements were significantly effective for enhacing the ductile capacity of the columns.