A Study on Fatigue Behaviour of Beam Column Joint Under Low Earthquake Loading

This report is a brief discussion on the preliminary research conducted and basic
understanding of the chosen topic, which is A Study on Fatigue Behaviour of Beam
Column Joint Under Low Earthquake Loading. For this project, the structural component
of beam-column joint in Malaysian standard school buildings are studied for its behaviour
under seismic action. A three storey school building in Malaysia is chosen as a case study.
The exterior and end joint of the school building is selected and samples of that joint are
fabricated. Lab testing were conducted to investigate the properties of beam column joint
when a cyclic loading is applied until it failure. The record of a 2007 Sumatra earthquake
which had a magnitude of peak ground accelereation of 0.01 5g is obtained from Consortioum
of Organizations for Strong-Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS) and used to investigate
the time-history response of the school building. A commercial software, STAAD. Pro is used
to analyse the response of the school building to the earthquake. Rainflow cycle counting in
time domain is then examined by taking the time history of load from STAAD. Pro as the
input. Number of cycles is determined from the time history. After the total number of cycles
in both time and frequency domain approaches are found, Palmgren-Miner rule also known as
linear damage theory, is used to estimate the fatigue life. From the study done, it is observed that
the structure undergoing earthquake of 3.7 MMI experience minimal damage. The significance
of this research would be important to evaluate the condition of the structure if it is able to
withstand the shaking as it was not designed to perform the job.