The connection between steel column and reinforced concrete footing is mainly implemented by embedding the column. This increases the moment resistance due to the horizontal bearing stresses against column flanges. This kind of connection is called Embedded Column Base (ECB) connection. The experiments proved that embedded connections could provide high strength and stiffness, and transfer axial force and moment through a combination of three mechanisms: (1) horizontal bearing stresses acting on the column flanges (2) vertical bearing stresses acting on the embedded base plate at the bottom of the column and (3) panel shear. This research aims to improve the connection efficiency between the foundation and multi-cell columns by carrying out a practical experiment on five specimens with four parameters. All specimens have dimensions of 800×800×250 mm for footing, 120×120×15000 mm for the column, and 200×200×6 mm for the base plate, and the top of columns are subjected to horizontal force. The first specimen is a control specimen (CS) with an 80 mm embedded connection and two column cells. The second specimen has an embedded depth parameter (ED) which equals 120 mm. The third specimen has a column cell parameter (CC1) in which the column section becomes one cell. The fourth specimen has upper footing reinforced (UR) parameters. The fifth specimen has shear studs (SS) parameter. The obtained results showed that the capacity resistance for ED, UR, and SS specimens increased by 97%, 28%, and 19%, respectively compared to the control specimen. The capacity resistance for the CC1 specimen decreased by 9 % compared to the control specimen.

Embedded column bases; Moment frames; Steel connections; multi-cell columns