ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL CONCRETE ABSTRACTS PORTAL

  • The International Concrete Abstracts Portal is an ACI led collaboration with leading technical organizations from within the international concrete industry and offers the most comprehensive collection of published concrete abstracts.

International Concrete Abstracts Portal

  


Title: Strut-and-Tie-Based Design and Testing of Reinforced Concrete Pier Caps

Author(s): Indu Geevar, Devdas Menon, and Meher Prasad A.

Publication: Structural Journal

Volume: 117

Issue: 2

Appears on pages(s): 211-223

Keywords: corbel; cracking; disturbed regions; pier cap; serviceability; shear; strut and tie

DOI: 10.14359/51721393

Date: 3/1/2020

Abstract:
This study was motivated by the observation of unexpected cracking in an actual reinforced concrete (RC) pier cap, consisting of a pair of two secondary corbels, supported on a primary corbel with the pier at its center. The pier cap was analyzed using the strut-and-tie method (STM) by considering a three-dimensional (3-D) model. Tests were carried out on two scaled-down pier cap specimens to assess safety and serviceability performance. The load-carrying capacity of the pier cap was under-predicted by approximately 75% by STM using ACI 318 and AASHTO codes. The test results presented in the paper include evolution of cracking and strains in the steel reinforcing bars, along with load-deflection plots. It was observed that concentrating reinforcing bars near the bearings resulted in an increase in strength by approximately 8.5% without adversely affecting serviceability. In summary, STM is found to provide an effective basis for the design and detailing of such complex pier caps.