Effect of splitting bond on shear response of reinforced engineered cementitious composite short columns under cyclic loading

Abstract

The effect of splitting bond on shear response of reinforced engineered cementitious composites (RECC) short columns under cyclic loading is experimentally investigated in this paper. Nine RECC short columns were designed to test the effect of axial load ratio, stirrup spacing and shear span-to-depth ratio on their cyclic response, and one reinforced concrete (RC) short column was prepared for comparison. The test results show that the RC short column failed in shear-splitting bond failure (shear accompanied by splitting bond) with poor plastic deformation and low energy dissipation. Splitting bond failure was effectively delayed in RECC short columns due to the high tensile strength and ductility of ECC, the RECC short columns failed in shear-splitting bond failure with ductile characteristics and thus exhibited improved cyclic response. In particular, the RECC short column corresponding to the control RC short column gained a 54.5% and a 60.7% improvement in ultimate drift ratio and cumulative energy dissipation, respectively. Additionally, a series of formulas based on truss-arch model was proposed to predict the shear strength of RECC short columns controlled by splitting bond, and the proposed model gives reasonable calculated results compared with the test results.