EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR STEEL-CONCRETE COMPOSITE NPS® BEAM-COLUMN JOINTS

Prof. Paolo Calvi – University of Washington (USA), presents the results of an experimental project carried out by Tecnostrutture with this American University at the Eucentre Foundation lab in Pavia (Italy). This study verified the performance of the NPS® system in specific seismic situations.

Initially, the technical characteristics of the NPS® system are presented, followed by the illustration of the fundamental steps of the lab tests, focusing mainly on the performance of the NPS® system.

The experimental program involved a series of seven full scale composite steel-concrete beam-column joints part of the NPS® – New Performance System. 

Prior to this project, no experimental evidence was available to provide further insights into the performance of the NPS® system. 

In addition to the four interior and the three exterior NPS® specimens, two moderately ductile reinforced concrete beam-column joints (one interior and one exterior), designed according to Eurocode requirements and intended to serve as reference, were tested within the experimental program.