Abstract: In response to the issue of beam failure and insufficient energy dissipation in GFRP beam column joints with sleeve connections under cyclic loading, the failure mode and seismic performance of the joints were studied based on experimental study. The improvement of seismic performance of the joints after adding or not add adhesives and influence of different kind of adhesives was analyzed and compared. On the basis of sleeve connection, this paper provides four groups of GFRP beam column joints: non-adhesive, flexible adhesive, rigid adhesive, and mix adhesive, and conducted low cycle repeated loading tests to study the influence of adhesives with different strengths on the seismic performance of the joints. The results showed that the addition of flexible adhesive increased the energy consumption of joints by approximately 97.19%, compared to non-adhesive. While the addition of rigid adhesive increased the energy consumption of joints by approximately 298.86%. Flexible adhesive is more prone to cracking compared to rigid adhesive, and after the adhesive is failed, the joint performance to approach that of a non-adhesive group. The results of rigid adhesive and mix adhesive are similar, indicated that the effect of adhesives with different characteristics on the side of the sleeve is not significantly different. There is no cracks in the rigid adhesive group, and the failure mode is sleeve buckling, with the beam and column intact. It is recommended to add rigid adhesive in the sleeve connection to improve the seismic performance of the joints.

Key words: GFRP beam column joints, bult-bonded connections, hysteresis curve, energy consumption