Bond and cracking behavior of lap-spliced reinforcing bars embedded in hybrid fiber reinforced strain-hardening cementitious composite (SHCC)

An experimental study was conducted to examine the effect of hybrid fiber, polyethylene (PE) and steel fiber, reinforcement on the bond and cracking characteristics of lap-spliced reinforcing bars embedded in strain-hardening cementitious composite (SHCC) in the tension zone and subjected to monotonic and cyclic tension loads. This study focused on the confinement effects with respect to the compressive strength of SHCC mixtures with hybrid fiber reinforcement. The SHCC mixtures contained two types of reinforcing fibers: polyethylene and steel fiber with aspect ratios of 1000 and 79, respectively. The test parameters include normal compressive strength (30 MPa) and high strength (100 MPa) and spliced lengths in tension (40% and 60% of the splice length recommended by ACI 318) for the SHCC mixtures. The results indicate that SHCC mixtures can be used effectively to reduce the development length of rebar up to 60% of the splice length required by the American Concrete Institute 318 equation according to splitting failure control by multiple cracking behavior of SHCC mixtures.