Small-size buildings are not designed by professional structural engineers in Korea. Therefore, their seismic performance can not be exactly estimated because their member sizes and reinforcement may be over- or under-designed. A prescriptive design criteria for the small-size buildings exists, but it also provides over-designed structural members since structural analysis is not incorporated, so it is necessary to revise the prescriptive criteria. The goal of this study was to provide an information for the revision, which is seismic performance and capability of small-size reinforced concrete moment frame buildings. For the study, the state of existing small-size reinforce-concrete buildings such as member size and reinforcement was identified by investigating their structural drawings. Then, over-strength, ductility and response modification factor of the small-size reinforced concrete moment frame buildings were estimated by analytical approach along with seismic performance check. The result showed that they possess moderate over-strength and ductility, and may use slightly increased response modification factor.

For small-size reinforce-concrete buildings, Midas Gen, OpenSees, and Perform-3D, which are structural analysis programs that are most popularly used at present, were applied for nonlinear static pushover analysis, and then difference between those programs was analyzed. Example buildings were limited to 2-story frames with irregular shaped walls. Analysis result showed that there were more differences than for frames only and frames with rectangular walls, but it was not so significant. Nevertheless, the capacity curve were different in some buildings, which is attributed to shape and location of walls, and feature of the analysis program. Especially, selection of automatic or manual input in Midas Gen, or nonlinear wall elements in Perform3D can affect the capacity curve and performance of the buildings. Therefore, the program users should understand the feature of the program well, and then conduct performance assessment. The result of this study is limited to low-story buildings so that it should be noted that it is possible to get different results for mid- to high-rise buildings.

A improved strength model was developed to predict the punching shear strength of interior slab-column connections without shear reinforcement. Considering the damage due to flexural cracking at slab-column connections damaged by flexural cracking, the punchingshear force was assumed to be resisted mainly by the compression zone of the critical section. The punching shear strength was defined by using the material failure criteria of concrete. In the evaluation of the punching shear strength, the interaction between the shear stress and the compressive normal stress developed by the flexural moment of the slab was considered. The proposed strength model was verified by existing test specimens.

An experimental study was performed to investigate the cyclic behavior of steel plate walls with reinforced concrete frames. Three specimens of three-story steel plate walls with reinforced concrete frames were tested. The parameters for the test specimens were the reinforcement ratio of the column and coupling wall. A reinforced concrete infilled wall and a reinforced concrete frame were also tested for comparison. The steel plate walls with reinforced concrete frames exhibited much better ductility and energy dissipation capacity than the reinforced concrete infilled wall and the reinforced concrete frame. The results showed that unlike other structural systems, the steel plate wall with reinforced concrete frames has excellent deformation capacity as well as strength, and can therefore be used as an effective earthquake-resisting system. This result indicates that not only steel frames but also reinforced concrete frames can be used in the steel plate wall system.

Pinching is an important property of reinforced concrete member which characterizes its cyclic behavior. In the present study, numerical studies were performed to investigate the characteristics and mechanisms of pinching behavior and the energy dissipation capacity of flexure-dominated reinforced concrete members. By analyzing existing experimental studies and numerical results, it was found that energy dissipation capacity of a member is directly related to the energy dissipated by re-bars that are plastic material rather than concrete that is brittle, and that it is not related to magnitude ofaxial compressive force applied to the member. Therefore, for a member with specific 없Tangement and amount of re-bars, the energy dissipation capacity remains uniformly regardless of the flexural strength increased by axial force. Pinching that is not related to shear appears due to this phenomenon. The flexural pinching appears conspicuous as the flexural strength increases compared to the uniform energy dissipation capacity. Based on the findings, a practical method for estimating the energy dissipation capacity was developed and verified with existing experiments.

Connection details for RC column-steel beam (RCS) moment frames were developed to improve the productivity and constructability. To strengthen the beam-column joint, transverse beams, studs, and U-cross ties were used. Four 2/3 scale interior RCS connections were tested under cyclic lateral loading. The specimens generally exhibited good deformation capacity exceeding 4.0% story drift ratio. Ultimately, the specimens failed due to bearing failure of concrete and shear failure of the joint panel.

In this study, reinforced concrete flat plates with steps were analyzed to suggest stiffness modification factors for the effective beam width of flat plates with steps. The analysis revealed that the stiffness modification is related to the length, thickness, height and location of the step.