Seismic performance of joints with high strength columns.

The paper deals with the seismic behaviour of column bases and beam-to-column joints made with high strength steel tubular columns subject to seismic loading. A test programme was carried out at the University of Trento with the aim of evaluating the seismic performance of these joints under monotonic, cyclic and random loads. With these load protocols, it was possible to assess the activation and location of plastic hinges and the stiffness and resistance of beam-to-column joints and column bases, as well as to quantify the ductility behaviour of some joint components. The cyclic tests were performed by employing a standard loading protocol and the random tests utilised displacements provided by Finite Element based simulations of a five-storey steel-concrete composite building subject to seismic loading. The paper reports and describes experimental tests on both beam-to-column joint and column bases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]