Curvature Ductility of Reinforced Concrete Plastic Hinges

Structural displacement ductility factor is commonly used to assess the demand on plastic regions in reinforced concrete structures. This book explains why this is not a convincing approach and why classifying potential plastic regions based on their local inelastic deformation demand (specified in terms of curvature for flexural plastic hinges) is a more appropriate approach. In the premise of the recently revised versions of New Zealand Standards for Earthquake Actions and Concrete Structures, which have led this paradigm shift in seismic design philosophy of RC structures, this book attempts to establish curvature limits for different categories of plastic hinges (namely ductile, limited ductile, and nominally ductile). Experimental data are collected from literature, and additional experiments are conducted to compensate for a lack of data in the nominally ductile range of detailing. The experimental work together with the literature review provide a stronger basis for re-defining the curvature limits for different plastic hinges.