KELLN, ROANNE D.1, FELDMAN, LISA R.2

1 M.Sc. Student, University of Saskatchewan, Department of Civil and Geological Engineering, rdk277@mail.usask.ca

2 Associate Professor, University of Saskatchewan, Department of Civil and Geological Engineering, lisa.feldman@usask.ca

Relatively few research efforts have focused on development and lap splice length requirements for reinforced masonry, despite the significant impact of these requirements on the safety, economy, and construction of masonry walls. The Canadian masonry provisions for splice lengths in CSA S304.1-04 are taken directly from the Canadian concrete design standard, CSA A23.3-04, thus do not reflect factors exclusive to masonry construction. Provisions in American code TMS 402-13/ACI 530-13/ASCE 5-13 are based on test results of double splice pullout specimens, but may be overly conservative due to shortcomings of the specimen type chosen.

The objective of this research was to examine splice lengths needed for flexural masonry elements reinforced with bar sizes typically used in Canadian masonry construction through the testing of wall splice specimens. Presented herein is a discussion of preliminary results of calculated splice capacities. A regression analysis of splice capacity versus splice length is presented. Average test/code ratios of splice lengths of 1.36, 1.78, and 2.20 result for the CSA S304.1-04 Class A provisions, Class B provisions, and TMS 402-13 requirements respectively. Test/code ratios decrease with increasing bar size when evaluating CSA provisions whereas these ratios show no distinct trend when assessed using TMS 402-13 provisions.

Keywords: splices, reinforcement, bond, code provisions, concrete block, wall splice specimens