Bond-Strengthening Hooks for RC Members with High Strength Spirals

This paper presents an experimental investigation of bond-strengthening hooks as a new method to increase bond strength along flexural reinforcing bars in reinforced concrete (RC) beams and columns. The RC members, which consisted of 1,300 MPa-class spirals as shear reinforcement, often suffered from bond splitting failure. The proposed method attempts to increase confining stiffness around the flexural bars by placing U-shaped hooks and to prevent premature bond splitting failure. Twelve specimens with varied amounts and sizes of the hooks were prepared to verify the strengthening effectiveness under monotonic and cyclic loading conditions. The test result indicated that the hooks increased the bond strength along the flexural bars although the strengthening effectiveness was limited by effective reinforcement ratio $P_{be}$. This limit is determined by size of stress-transmitting zones of concrete around anchors of the hooks. Anchors of the hooks are recommended to be longer than twelve times the hook diameter and inserted deeper than a quarter of the member depth (D/4). Proposed design equations provide modest estimates of the shear strengths.