In order to study the influence of different column foot connections exerting on seismic behavior of single story and single span self-centering steel beam with I beam

two types of self-centering steel frame specimens composed of fixed column foot and articulated column foot respectively were designed and manufactured. The load transfer mechanism

bearing capacity

hysteretic behavior

ductility

energy dissipation capacity

and self-centering capacity of the specimens were analyzed by low cyclic loading test. Test results indicate that the self-centering frame with fixed column foot had larger residual deformation and poorer self-centering effect

since the required restoring force of the column foot after yielding was much greater than the force provided by the self-centering I beam. Therefore

it is not recommended to be adopted as column foot connection for such structures. The load transfer mechanism of the self-centering frame with articulated column foot agreed well with the theoretical analysis results. Only energy dissipation fuses had plastic deformation

and the residual deformation was small after unloading

indicating that it has the characteristic of “resilient structure”. When story drift was loaded to 4%

the skeleton curve had no descending section

and the self-centering frame with articulated column foot had adequate capacity reserve. The displacement ductility coefficient of the specimen was 3.1

and the equivalent viscous damping coefficient was 0.19

which shows that the structure has good seismic behavior.