After the 1995 Hyogoken Nanbu Earthquake, fractures at welded beam-to-column connection have been one of the most serious concerns. To avoid the fractures, various alternatives have been proposed, and the connection with exterior diaphragms is considered as one solution because of significant reduction of welding. The connection proposed in this paper is a type of the exterior diaphragm system. A portion of the floor slab around the column is cast by SFRCC, which is one of the ultra high-strength concrete, and the slabs are connected to the beams by a group of headed studs. In the connection, the beam hinge is expected to form at the edge of SFRCC diaphragm. To realize the system, the studs have to be arranged in small spacing near the column, which is made possible by the large bonding characteristic of SFRCC. Full scale tests on the new connection are conducted for cyclic loading. The tests show that the connection failed by beam yielding as expected, and the beam strength reached 1.2 times the beam plastic moment.
