Flexural behavior of precast joints with horizontal loop connections

Abstract

The study reported in this paper is concerned with the flexural behavior of precast concrete specimens with one-to-one horizontal loop connections. Two types of specimens were tested: precast and monolithic. The reinforcement loops were placed with different overlapping longitudinal lengths, internal diameters of mandrel of loop, overlapping transverse spacings, percentage of cottering bars, and interface roughness. The results suggest that an increase in the loop overlapping length, a decrease in the internal diameter, or on overlap spacing of the loop resulted in an increase in the flexural strength of the precast specimen tested. An empirical expression to calculate the moment capacity of such specimens is proposed, applicable to both precast reinforced members and monolithic specimens with one-to-one loop connections tested. Copyright © 2006, American Concrete Institute. All rights reserved.