Seismic performance of prefabricated fully bolted beam-to-column exterior joints with precast hollow floor slab

To investigate the influence of hollow floor slabs on the seismic performance of prefabricated fully bolted beam-through-column joints, five full-scale exterior joint specimens were tested under column-end cyclic loading and further analyzed using finite element analysis. The influences of the floor slab effect, the lower-flange thickness of the cantilever beam, and the web splice plate connection configuration on the mechanical behavior and energy dissipation mechanism of the joints were investigated. The test results indicate that the prefabricated fully bolted beam-through-column joints exhibited high initial stiffness before bolt connection slip and could be approximately regarded as rigid connections. After bolt connection slip occurred, the joints dissipated energy through bolt connection slip in the connection area and plastic deformation of the steel members. The floor slab effect significantly improved the load-carrying capacity and initial stiffness of the joints, but it also restrained bolt connection slip at the upper flange of the beam, causing the deformation demand to concentrate more in the lower flange of the beam and leading to more pronounced post-peak strength degradation. Increasing the lower-flange thickness of the cantilever beam had a limited influence on the initial stiffness of the joints, but delayed premature damage in the lower flange of the cantilever beam and improved the deformation capacity of the joints. Based on the test and numerical analysis results, simplified methods were proposed to calculate the yielding and ultimate bending moments of the joints by considering the effective slab width, and the predictions showed good agreement with the experimental results.