An experimental study of five full-scale coupling beam specimens has been conducted to investigate the seismic behavior of strengthened RC coupling beams by bolted side steel plates using a reversed cyclic loading procedure. The strengthened coupling beams are fabricated with different plate thicknesses and shear connector arrangements to study their respective effects on load-carrying capacity, strength retention, stiffness degradation, deformation capacity, and energy dissipation ability. The study revealed that putting shear connectors along the span of coupling beams produces no significant improvement to the structural performance of the strengthened beams. Translational and rotational partial interactions of the shear connectors that would weaken the load-carrying capacity of the steel plates were observed and measured. The hierarchy of failure of concrete, steel plates, and shear connectors was identified. Furthermore, detailed effects of plate buckling and various arrangements of shear connectors on the post-peak behavior of the strengthened beams are discussed.
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Zhu et al. (2007) studied this question.
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