Local Behavior of Lap-Spliced Deformed Rebars in Reinforced Concrete Beams

Twelve full-scale reinforced concrete beams with two tension lap splices were constructed and tested under a four-point loading test. Half of these beams had shorter lap splices than that recommended by American Concrete Institute Building Code ACI 318-19; they failed by bond loss between steel and concrete at the lap splice region before rebar yielding. The other half of the beams were designed with a lap splice length slightly exceeding that recommended by ACI 318-19; they failed by rebar yielding and exhibited a ductile behavior. Several strain gauges were attached to the longitudinal bars in the lap splice region to study the local behavior of deformed bars during loading. The strain in a rebar was maximum at the loaded end of the lap splice and progressively decreased toward the unloaded end because the rebar at this end could not sustain any load. Stress flow discontinuity occurred at the loaded end and caused stress concentration. The effect of this concentration was investigated based on test results. The comparison of bond strengths calculated by existing equations and those of tested specimens indicated that the results agreed well.