EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR STEEL‐CONCRETE COMPOSITE NPS^® BEAM‐COLUMN JOINTS

This paper presents the results of an experimental program involving a series of five full scale NPS^® (three interior and two exterior) and two moderately ductile reinforced concrete (one interior and one exterior) beam‐column joints, designed per Eurocode requirements. The NPS^® System utilizes steel wrapped reinforced concrete columns and composite steel truss concrete (CSTC) beams reinforced with steel truss elements made with bottom plates to double as partial formwork. The specimens were tested under quasi‐static reversed cyclic horizontal loading, with a constant axial load applied to the column. The variables considered were the level of shear reinforcement provided within the joint panel zone and the presence/absence of additional shear reinforcement in the beam end‐regions.