Behaviour of RC column to iTECH composite beam joint

Since the end of twentieth century, the number of high-rise buildings in Korea has greatly increased. Due to the limited city area, storey height is a significant factor for tall residential structures. To occupy less storey height, the use of wide reinforced concrete (RC) beams was adopted in some projects such as Trump World and Galleria Palace in Seoul. However, the space for joints between the wide beams and the core walls was too narrow for the reinforcement. In this paper, an alternative composite beam is proposed. The joint with the RC column was experimentally explored through cyclic loading tests. The proposed composite beam is named iTECH (Innovative, Technical, Economical and Convenient Hybrid). It has an asymmetric steel assembly with web openings, where the top plate is welded on top of an inverted structural T-cut ‘honeycomb’ style. The joint of the RC column–iTECH beam behaved well and may be suitable for field applications.