The stringent requirements on dimensions, ductility, energy absorption, strength and stiffness of coupling beams have resulted in much research on various alternative coupling beam designs, which include the use of diagonal reinforcement, rhombic arrangement of main bars and steel composites. Experimental results showed that each of these designs offered better performance than the conventional type but had its own limitations. A new embedded steel composite coupling beam design is therefore proposed. This paper presents the findings from the experimental tests of a coupling beam fabricated with this proposed design and a conventionally reinforced coupling beam, which serves as the reference. The preliminary test results showed that the embedded steel coupling beam with relatively large span-to-depth ratio ( l/h = 2.5) had excellent shear capacity (∼10MPa) and very good energy absorption.

Experimental studies on the newly proposed design of plate-reinforced composite (PRC) coupling beams have been carried out. Previous results have demonstrated the useful application of this design in coupling beams of medium span-to-depth ratios (l/ h) under both inelastic seismic and elastic wind loading. This paper presents further experimental studies on five PRC coupling beams, which investigated the importance of shear connectors on plate/reinforced concrete composite action. Three medium-length (l/ h = 2.5) and two short (l/ h = 1.17) PRC coupling beams, each containing a vertically embedded steel plate, were tested under reversed cyclic loading. While one short beam was welded with expanded metal meshes on the plate surfaces, others were welded with shear studs on the plates in the wall regions and/or the beam spans. Results showed that the expanded metal meshes did not work effectively, and while the shear studs in the beam span only slightly increased the beam capacity, those in the wall regions contributed considerably in improving inelastic beam performance.

No abstract

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the behavior of deep coupling beams of span‐to‐depth ratio (1·17) fabricated according to the newly proposed plate‐reinforced composite (PRC) coupling beam design. Three PRC coupling beams of small span/depth ratio fabricated based on different approaches for load transfers between steel plates and reinforced concrete (RC) were tested under reversed cyclic loading. This paper presents the experimental results and compares the overall performance of these three specimens with two geometrically identical RC coupling beam specimens, one with diagonal reinforcement and the other with conventional reinforcement details, tested by previous researchers. It was found that the performance of PRC deep coupling beams of small span‐to‐depth ratio with properly designed plate anchorage in the wall regions can be comparable to that of diagonally reinforced coupling beams while being able to achieve a higher shear capacity without causing the problem of steel congestion. The proper design approach for the plate anchorage of PRC coupling beams was also identified. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

No abstract