ETA Tests and Design of HPKM Column Shoe Connections

In Europe interest and relevance of CE marking of construction products stood up at the beginning of the 21st century. ETA approval was the only solution for innovative products such as Column Shoes to get user right of CE marking with basic requirements such as mechanical resistance and stability and safety in use. In the recent decades some studies has been done for bolted precast column connections but there were not widely agreed ready practices available, how to verify the performance of connections of precast columns. It was required in ETA and CUAP to verify the rules for mechanical behavior and fire resistance by full-scale tests. This paper presents the results of ETA tests made for Peikko precast column connections with HPKM® Column Shoes and HPM® Anchor Bolts. There were 24 precast column connections tested with different column dimensions and type of HPKM® Column Shoes for Bending Resistance (BR), Bending Stiffness Resistance (BSR), Shear Resistance and Fire Resistance. The experimental concrete unit tests have confirmed that the stiffness of Peikko column connection is at least as rigid as a continuously reinforced cast-in-situ column connection. HPKM® Column Shoes and column connections fulfill the ETA-13/0603 requirements for mechanical, fire, and corrosion resistance, stiffness and shear resistance. ETA-13/0603 includes pioneering design rules for bolted precast column connections. The rules are in accordance with standards EN 1992-1-1 and EN 1992-1-2 (Eurocode 2) and take into account the behavior of the completed connection and its components (Column Shoes, Anchor Bolts and grout).