The results of an experimental program conducted on seventeen
simply supported concrete beams to study the effect of
transverse reinforcement on the behavior of the lap splice of
a steel reinforcement in tension zones in high-strength concrete
beams are presented. The parameters included in the experimental
program were the concrete compressive strength, the
lap splice length, the amount of transverse reinforcement provided
within the splice region, and the shape of the transverse
reinforcement around the spliced bars. The experimental results
showed that the displacement ductility increased and the mode
of failure changed from a splitting bond failure to a flexural
failure when the amount of the transverse reinforcement in the
splice region increased, and the compressive strength increased
up to 100 MPa. The presence of the transverse reinforcement
around the spliced bars had a pronounced effect on increasing
the ultimate load, the ultimate deflection, and the displacement
ductility. The prediction of maximum steel stresses for spliced
bars using the ACI 318-05 building code was compared with the
experimental results. The comparison showed that the effect of
the transverse reinforcement around spliced bars has to be considered
into the design equations for lap splice length in highstrength
concrete beams. |
