The effect of the diameter of prestressed strands providing the post-tensioned beam-to-column connections

In this study, the effect of prestressed strand diameters, providing the beam-to-column connections, was investigated from both experimental and analytical aspects. In the experimental studies, the strength, stiffness and energy dissipation capacities of the precast specimens comprising two prestressed strand samples of 12.70 mm and 15.24 mm diameters, were compared with the reference specimen. The precast specimen with strands of 15.24 mm reached 96% of the maximum strength of the reference specimen; the amount of energy dissipated by this specimen by the end of the experiment reached 48% of the amount of energy dissipated by the reference sample; and the stiffness of the same specimen at a drift of 1.5% reached 77% of the stiffness of the reference specimen at this drift. Parallel results were obtained during the analytical studies from the aspects of strength and behavior, but the initial stiffness of the analytical models was lower than that of the test specimens.