Catenary Action in Rebars Crossing a Casting Joint Loaded in Shear

Reinforcement crossing a casting joint loaded in shear exhibits catenary action as the shear displacement increases. The load carrying capacity of such a joint is in practice often calculated by use of empirical methods to account for shear friction effects or by a first order plastic analysis if dowel action is included. The strength increase/reserve due to catenary action in the rebars is often neglected;
however in some cases it may be necessary to utilize the effect in order to ensure overall structural robustness. This paper presents results of a study, where the increased shear capacity due to catenary action was investigated experimentally in a simple push-off setup and theoretically by a second order plastic analysis. The model captures the combination of dowel and catenary action with increasing shear displacement and satisfactory correlation between the S-shaped test results and theory is found when reasonable material properties are assumed.