One-half scale reinforced concrete test specimens were tested to study the behavior of beam-column subassemblages designed under Japanese and U.S. construction practices.

The specimens represented second-floor interior and exterior beam-column assemblies and top-floor exterior beam-column assemblies of a seven-story full-scale test structure.

The placement of beam and column longitudianl reinforcement was the same in all specimens. The amount and arrangement of lateral reinforcement was varied in specimens following the U.S. and Japanese design requirements. More web reinforcement in beams and columns was required by the U.S. design code.

Within a deformation range predicted by a nonlinear earthquake response analysis of the prototype structure, the behavior of the two specimens designed by the two codes was quite similar. Specimens with slab behaved in a manner different from the corresponding specimen without slab.

^*1 Head, Structural Division, Building Research Institute