Seismic performance on PSPC beam – Concrete encased CFST column frame with a built-in reduced beam section

The concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) column is widely used to connect with a steel beam owing to the quick dry connection and acceptable seismic performance. Therefore, a partially steel-reinforced precast concrete (PSPC) beam with an embedded H-beam was developed to combine the merits of both the prefabrication in the precast concrete beam and the quick assembly in the steel beam. In this study, the developed beam was proposed to connect the concrete encased CFST column with a reduced beam section. A half-scaled frame substructure specimen with two floors and two bays was designed and tested under the cyclic loading to investigate the seismic performance. A series of seismic properties were analyzed, including the failure phenomena, hysteretic performance, stiffness degradation, and energy dissipation capacity. The dog-bone configuration was found to benefit the beam hinge failure mechanism and an acceptable deformation capacity (the ductility coefficient up to 2.77). The function of the H-beam contributed to stable energy absorption (the equivalent damping coefficient from 0.33 to 0.37). Finally, the proposed frame was compared with a reinforced concrete frame and a steel-reinforced concrete frame through numerical analysis. The partial steel-reinforced configuration had a positive influence on the bearing capacity, hysteretic performance, and safety storage. In addition, it could improve the cost-effectiveness with little decrease in the bearing capacity.