Experimental Study on Seismic Retrofitting of Reinforced Concrete Frames Using Welded Concrete-Filled Steel Tubes

Buildings constructed with non-seismic details are at risk of damage and collapse when an earthquake occurs due to a lack of strength, stiffness, and ductility. For reinforced concrete (RC) moment-resisting frames, seismic retrofitting methods that can enhance strength or ductility should be applied. However, such strategies have many disadvantages related to constructability, serviceability, securing integrity, and cost. In this paper, a welded concrete-filled steel tube (WCFST) system was examined in order to resolve the problems of the existing seismic retrofitting methods for RC moment-resisting frames. To evaluate the seismic performance of the proposed system, two specimens, one with non-seismic details and another reinforced with a WCFST seismic system, were manufactured for the cyclic loading tests. As a result of the experiments, the specimen retrofitted with the WCFST system showed maximum load, effective stiffness, and energy dissipation capacity values approximately 3, 2, and 2.5 times greater, respectively, than those obtained from the existing reinforced concrete frame specimen. The experimental results indicate that the proposed WCFST system is expected to be effective at improving the seismic performance by enhancing both the strength of the existing reinforced concrete frame structures and the dissipation of the seismic energy.