Experimental investigation on the deformation capacity of lap splices under cyclic loading

Correct detailing and positioning of lap splices is essential in order to prevent premature failure of reinforced concrete structural members. Especially before the introduction of capacity design guidelines, lap splices were often placed in member regions that undergo inelastic deformations under earthquake loading. When assessing the seismic performance of such members, not only the lap splice strength, which was assessed in previous studies, but also information on the deformation capacity of lap splices is required. This paper analyses the results of a recently concluded experimental programme on spliced RC wall boundary elements tested under uniaxial tension-compression cyclic loading. The study aimed at investigating the influence of lap splice length, confining reinforcement and loading history on the deformation capacity of lap splices. The latter is defined as the average strain, at the onset of splice failure, ascribed to deformations originating from the lap splice zone. Analysis of the test results showed that the deformation capacity of lap splices: (1) increases with lap splice length; (2) increases with confining reinforcement but the effectiveness of the confining reinforcement is dependent on the lap splice length; (3) decreases with larger imposed compression levels; (4) is larger for bottom-casted with respect to top-casted lap splices. Finally, an empirical model is proposed to estimate the strain capacity of lap splices, which provides a good fit with the experimental results.