Abstract
A method is proposed to indirectly determine values of the transfer length in cracked RC based on the observed load-deformation responses of RC tension members and their crack configurations under increasing load. The transfer length is characterized on the basis of results of several tension stiffening studies in the literature, including recent tests by the authors. In the present study, the transfer length is revealed to be strongly load-dependent, accounting for the gradual deterioration of the tension stiffening effect with increasing load. A solution is identified for the classical problem governing the relationship between the average crack spacing and the transfer length, and it is demonstrated to yield accurate estimates of average crack spacing for a wide range of RC tension and flexural members. Based on empirical crack spacing distributions of real RC members, a statistical approach is adopted to characterize the minimum and maximum spacing of cracks.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Australian Research Council through ARC Discovery projects DP110103028 and DP14010052. The authors are grateful to Tony Macken and Ben Pauley for their assistance with the experiments.
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Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 144 • Issue 7 • July 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 3, 2017
Accepted: Jan 29, 2018
Published online: May 11, 2018
Published in print: Jul 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Oct 11, 2018
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