The columns of older reinforced concrete (RC) buildings generally have limited reinforcement details. Thus, they could be vulnerable to earthquake ground motions, leading to partial or complete building collapse. In this study, high-performance fiber-reinforced cementitious composite (HPFRCC) was applied to RC columns to improve their seismic behavior. Experimental tests were conducted with two full-sized specimens with limited reinforcement details, including short lap splices, while unidirectional loadings were applied to the specimens. The seismic behavior of RC columns was substantially improved by using HPFRCC.

Reinforced concrete (RC) buildings built in the 1980s are vulnerable to seismic behavior because they were designed without any consideration of seismic loads. These buildings have widely spaced transverse reinforcements and a short lap splice length of longitudinal reinforcements, which makes them vulnerable to severe damage or even collapse during earthquakes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of bidirectional lateral loads on RC columns with deficient reinforcement details. An experimental test was conducted for two full-scale RC column specimens. The test results of deficient RC columns revealed that bidirectional loading deteriorates the seismic capacity when compared with a column tested unidirectionally. Modeling parameters were extracted from the tested load-displacement response and compared with those proposed in performance-based design standards. The modeling parameters proposed in the standards underestimated the deformation capacity of tested specimens by nearly 50% and overestimated the strength capacity by 15 to 20%.