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Abstract

The main goal of this study is to investigate the nonlinear performance of concrete connections considering their actual flexural stiffness under lateral excitation. First, the joints were applied to cyclic lateral loading. From the developed experimental models, the actual relation between connections’ rotation and its corresponding moment were obtained. Second, an ANSYS model was developed to determine the connections’ rotation and its corresponding moment for the RC connections based on their size, concrete strength and rebar details. The connection rotation is equal that from the experimental models. The study concluded that modeling connections as rigid connections will significantly overestimate the stiffness of RC buildings and give erroneous structural responses.