Simplified Plastic Hinge Model for Reinforced Concrete Beam–Column Joints with Eccentric Beams

In nonlinear analysis for performance-based design of reinforced concrete moment frames, a plastic hinge spring element is predominantly used in order to simply and accurately describe the inelastic behavior of beam–column joints, including strength degradation. Although current design codes and guidelines provide various beam–column joint models, the focus is on concentric beam–column joints. Therefore, more studies are required for eccentric beam–column joints, which are also common in practice. In the present study, to consider the effect of beam eccentricity on the behavior of beam–column joints, a simplified plastic hinge model was proposed using the effective joint width of current design codes. The proposed model was compared to the cyclic loading test results of beam–column joints with/without beam eccentricity. The comparison showed that the simplified plastic hinge model with the effective joint width of NZS 3101-2006 or Eurocode 8 is considered acceptable for design purpose.