Design against failure of RC beam/column elements in the region of points of contraflexure

What is it about?

In spite of the considerable number of reinforced-concrete structures invariably suffering earthquake damage in the regions of points of contraflexure of their beam or column elements, research on the subject to date has been sparse. This work discusses the causes of such damage and proposes a simple design method that does not require calibration through the use of experimental data. A comparison of the proposed method's predictions with experimental information and the predictions of typical current code methods not only demonstrates the validity of the proposed method, but also confirms the shortcomings of current design practice.

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Why is it important?

The proposed method has been shown by experiment to be capable of preventing a recurrent earthquake damage which occurs in regions of point of contraflexure and current code methods have been unable to prevent to date.