Title:
Experimental Investigations on Reinforced Concrete Walls with Staggered Lap Splicing
Author(s):
Abhishek Kumar and G. Appa Rao
Publication:
Structural Journal
Volume:
122
Issue:
4
Appears on pages(s):
125-138
Keywords:
bond mechanism; flexural and shear strength; lap-splice of reinforcing bars; reinforced concrete; shear walls
DOI:
10.14359/51746673
Date:
7/1/2025
Abstract:
Lap-splicing of longitudinal reinforcing bars in shear walls is often
encountered in practice, and the transfer of forces in lap-spliced
reinforcing bars to the surrounding concrete depends on the bond
strength. Buildings with shear walls during an earthquake develop
plastic hinges in the shear walls, particularly where the reinforcing
bars are lap-spliced. Brittle failure is commonly observed in
lap-spliced reinforced shear walls, which needs to be minimized by
choosing the appropriate percentage of lap-spliced reinforcing bars.
Therefore, it is essential to address the detailing of the lap-spliced
regions of reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls. Several seismic
design codes provide guidelines on lap-spliced detailing in shear
walls related to its location, length of lap-splice, confinement reinforcement, and percentage of reinforcing bars to be lap-spliced. In this study, the percentage of reinforcing bars to be lap-spliced at
a section is examined with staggered lap-splicing of 100, 50, and
33% of longitudinal reinforcing bars, in addition to a control RC
shear wall without lap-splicing. This study tested four half-scale
RC shear walls with boundary element (BE), designed as per IS
13920 and ACI 318, under quasi-static reversed cyclic loading.
From the experimental study, it is observed that the staggered lap
splicing of reinforcing bars nominally reduces the performance
of shear walls under cyclic load in terms of the reduced flexural
strength, deformation capacity, energy dissipation, and ductility
of the shear walls compared to the control shear wall without lap
splicing. It is also observed that the unspliced reinforcing bars do
not sustain the cyclic loading in staggered lap-splice after the postpeak. Current provisions of ACI 318, Eurocode 2, and IS 13920
recommend staggered lap-splice detailing in shear walls. However,
from the current study, shear walls with different percentages of
staggered lap-splices show that the staggered lap-splice detailing
in shear walls does not improve its seismic performance.
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