This research work presents new details for moment connections in precast concrete structures satisfying both design and practice criteria. In this paper the results of the numerical study on the connections are presented. For the analysis, the ANSYS software is selected because of its diversity in nonlinear analysis. By calculating the monotonic load-displacement curve of each connection, the connections are evaluated for their stiffness, strength, and ductility.
The compressive strength of the connection concrete is taken to be 30, 35 and 40 MPa, for each round of analysis. The results of the analysis show that the proposed connections are stiff enough to be moment resisting and to be emulating an equivalent monolithic, or basic connection. It is illustrated that the connections are stronger but somewhat less ductile than the basic connection regardless of the concrete strengths examined. Moreover, it is shown that in each precast connection while increasing the compressive strength of concrete does not affect the connection stiffness considerably, it increases the ultimate load and ductility of the connection. As a main result of this study, the suggested connection details are categorized based on their stiffness, strength, and ductility. The suggested connections can be used in moment resisting precast concrete buildings based on the desired strength and ductility.
Safety Performance of a Precast Concrete Barrier: Numerical Study
