Flexural behaviour and ductility of high strength concrete (HSC) beams with tension lap splice

An experimental program has been conducted in order to investigate the flexural behaviour of concrete beams with variable length of tension reinforcement lap splice. A test series of eighteen simple beams containing different lap splice length (0, 300, 500 and 700 mm) had been conducted in this investigation. The tested beams are of 2200 mm total length and 200 × 150 mm cross-section, loaded at the middle third with two equal concentrated loads. The parameters included in the experimental program are the splice length, the bar diameter (12, 16 mm), the amount of transverse reinforcement provided within the splice zone, the shape of the anchor at the splices end and the concrete cover (20, 35 mm). The test program has been performed on two grades of high strength concretes (0%, 15% silica fume); 55, 65 MPa. Two deformed bars of tension reinforcement were spliced in the constant moment zone. The effect of splicing tension reinforcement on the response, cracking load, crack propagation, deflection, ultimate capacity, mid-span reinforcement strain, failure mode and beam ductility, is examined. Results show that by introducing an appropriate amount and distribution of transverse reinforcement, a satisfactory ductility response can be obtained (91% of reference beam).