Modified Bouc-Wen model for hysteresis behavior of RC beam-column joints with limited transverse reinforcement

An analytical approach based on modified Bouc-Wen-Baber-Noori model has been proposed in this paper for predicting the hysteresis behavior of reinforced concrete beam-column joints with limited transverse reinforcement. The analytical model presented in this research is able to capture the characteristics of non-seismic detailed beam-column joints such as stiffness and strength degradation and pinching. Livermore Solver for Ordinary Differential Equations (LSODE) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) have been employed to solve the differential equations and to execute systematic estimation of the parameters associated with the model respectively. The analytical model has been calibrated with the experimental results of old fashioned interior and exterior beam-column joints obtained from the literature. In a bid to examine the influence of variation of each analytical parameter on the model, sensitivity analysis has been performed. Thereafter, an extensive parametric study has been conducted to relate the physical parameters of beam-column joints to the analytical model parameters. The upper and lower bounds of the magnitude of the analytical model parameters have been proposed subsequently with a method to identify the parameters for a specific beam-column joint depending on its physical parameters. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.