Flexural behaviour of headed bar connections between precast concrete panels

Abstract

The use of headed bars in joints between precast concrete elements allows continuity of reinforcement to be achieved over very short splice lengths. The paper describes a series of flexural tests carried out on specimens consisting of pairs of precast elements connected by overlapping headed bars of 25mm diameter. The headed bars overlapped by 100mm within a 200mm wide in situ concrete joint in which transverse bars and vertical shear studs were installed to provide confinement. This type of joint facilitates the construction of continuously reinforced slabs from precast elements thereby enabling significant reductions in overall construction time and improvements in construction quality due to off-site fabrication. The tests investigated the influence on joint strength, ductility and crack width of concrete strength, out-of-plane offset of precast planks and confining shear studs. Ductile failure with yield of 25mm diameter high strength headed bars was achieved with joint concrete having a cylinder compressive strength of 39MPa. A nonlinear finite element model is presented, which gives good predictions of joint strength as well as providing insight into joint behaviour.