Short Review on Reinforced Concrete Beam - Column Joint : Earthquake Response and Rehabilitation Techniques

It is highly recognized throughout the entire literature that there are many serious attempts to investigate the structural behavior of Reinforced concrete (RC) beam column joint. These studies tried to cover many key elements that usually govern the intended behavior of such structural element. It can be also from any simple survey during that literature that the reported failures in the past confirm the fact that the used design methods did not play the required role in providing good safe design. The most classic trend in strengthening the reinforced concrete joints was the addition of transversal bars. However, there are agreements throughout the recent contributions that increasing the level of reinforcement illustrated and optimum value and the extra addition may give negative results. In contrast, many alternative rehabilitation techniques were examined in the past such as Slurry Infiltrated Fiber Reinforced Concrete (SIFCON) blocks and Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) sheets which gave good results regarding mechanical strength, stiffness and ductility behavior. The current study tries to present an overview with respect to past research programs that deals with such concern of science. (paper)