Shear behavior of reinforced concrete basement walls with consecutive convexo-concave-shaped bars as shear reinforcement.

This study examined the significance and shortcomings of the consecutive convexo-concave shaped shear reinforcement (CCSR) developed as an alternative for transverse crossties in basement walls. Three wall specimens prepared under a full scale were tested under constant axial load and out-of-plane lateral load. In the tests, the CCSR was classified into two types including S-type for the S-curve bending and B-type for approximately 90° bending. To investigate the shear transfer capacity of the CCSR, a mechanism model was driven on the basis of the upper-bound theorem of concrete plasticity. Test results revealed that the CCSR is more favorable to restrict the opening of the inclined cracks and enhancing the shear capacity of the basement wall when compared with the conventional crossties. Wall S (with S-type of CCSR) and Wall B (with B-type of CCSR) possessed 1.21 times and 1.12 times higher shear capacity, respectively, than wall C (with the conventional crossties). The wall S exhibited least rapid descending branch after the peak load, maintaining 80% of the peak load until the wall drift ratio reached 5.4%. The American Concrete Institute (ACI) 318-14 equations extremely underestimate the shear capacity of the basement wall, whereas the predictions obtained from the proposed mechanical model are in better agreement with the test results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]