Verification of the secondary reinforcement influence on the strap beams design

Abstract

The present work aims to expose a methodology for the design of strap beams between pile caps, and to investigate the effect of secondary reinforcement on the behavior of the pile cap located on the property line. For the study, it was selected the deep foundation geometry of a borderline pillar from the infrastructure design of a building. A design methodology was then presented for the foundations' reinforcement. In ABAQUS [1] software, based on the Finite Element Method, a non-linear analysis of four models related to the case study was performed, with the variation of the secondary reinforcement arrangement. It was found that the combined horizontal and vertical secondary reinforcements were efficient to ensure a more ductile failure for the concrete strut. However, the model with the secondary reinforcement inclined at 45º showed the highest resistance.