Experimental study of a novel precast prestressed reinforced concrete beam-to-column joint

•An innovative precast prestressed beam-to-column joint is developed.•Behaviour and performance of the joint are investigated by experimental tests.•Energy dissipation, self-centering capacity and steady strength are ensured.•The crack width is controlled below 0.4 mm and rebars of the beams remain elastic.•The proposed detailing preserves the beam ends from crushing and spalling. Precast reinforced concrete (r.c.) structures can provide important advantages over their cast-in-place counterpart. However, lessons learned by past earthquakes evidence that beam-to-column joints may be a critical point of these structure and can undermine the seismic performance if not properly conceived. This paper presents a novel prestressed precast r.c. beam-to-column joint. The beam ends adjacent to the column are reinforced by steel jacket to prevent concrete from spalling. Steel strands are used to provide the joint with self-centering capacity. Replaceable mild steel bars provide the joint with energy dissipation capacity. The effectiveness of the proposed joint is investigated by experimental tests. The obtained results demonstrate the good properties of the joint in terms of strength and deformation capacity, control of story drift, easy reparability, and preventing beams and columns from damage. Finally, the comparison with a conventional cast-in-place beam-to-column joint points out the superior resilience against earthquake of the proposed precast prestressed joint.