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RETROFITTING DESIGN GUIDELINES USING STEEL PLATES AND SHEAR BOLTS

Conference Paper · May 2012

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 Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Seismic Retrofitting, Tabriz, Iran, 2-4 May 2012

Paper Code. EE. XXX

RETROFITTING DESIGN GUIDELINES USING STEEL PLATES AND

SHEAR BOLTS

H. Marzouk and E. Rizk

Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
[email protected]

ABSTRACT
The current paper presents design guidelines for strengthening of concrete members using sandwich steel plates
and steel shear bolts. In addition to our experimental investigation and other test results available in the literature, a
theoretical investigation is conducted on different design aspects of sandwich steel plates and shear bolts. Design
aspects of the strengthening techniques include minimum area of steel plates, design width of steel plates and extension
of steel plates from the support face (loading zone). Design requirements for shear bolts include minimum and
maximum spacing between shear bolts, minimum cross section area for shear bolts, distance between the support faces
and the outer-most peripheral line of shear bolts.
The research work represents two design concepts for the design of the rehabilitated concrete connections. The
first model is based on a truss model assumption. The second concept presents the design of sandwich steel plates based
on the rational shear sandwich model. The recommended design deals with the required number of shear bolts
according to minimum shear reinforcement requirements for concrete Plates, bolt spacing and thickness of the steel
plate.

Key Words: Steel Strengthening, Shear bolt spacing, Plated Thickness strengthening; Concrete Plates and
Cyclic moment on beam column connections.

1 INTRODUCTION

One of the most effective solutions to the seismic retrofitting is to design the size of steel
plates and shear bolts required for strengthening. The use of steel bolts or shear studs (headed bars)
are mechanically anchored studs with a plate or a head at each end that is capable of developing the
yield strength of the studs. The stems of these studs intersect the shear cracks preventing their
widening (Ghali and Megally 1999). In addition, the heads of the shear studs provide a good
mechanical anchorage at both ends. The extensive investigations that were conducted by different
researchers (Elgabry and Ghali 1990; Andrä 1981; Dilger and Ghali 1981; Mokhtar et al. 1985) on
full-size concrete slabs verified that stud type reinforcement can substantially increase the strength
and prevent brittle failure of plate slabs.
Marzouk and Jiang (1997) conducted an experimental investigation of HSC plates that are
reinforced with five different types of shear reinforcement to prevent brittle shear failure. It was
concluded that double bend, stud and T-headed shear reinforcements are the most efficient shear
enhancement for concrete plates. The addition of shear reinforcement did eliminate the punching
failure mode and it was transformed into flexural failure for the HSC plates that utilized the flexural
reinforcement. In the meantime, both ductility and energy absorption of the plate slab was
significantly increased by using shear reinforcement.
1
 Birkle and Dilger (2008) studied the influence of slab thickness on shear strength. A total of
nine specimens were tested to investigate the influence of the slab thickness on the shear strength of
plate slab with and without shear reinforcement. To ensure the good employment of shear
reinforcement, the stud spacing, s, was chosen to be 0.75d, the upper limit for s, according to ACI
421.1R-08 design guidelines. The shear studs were extended to approximately 4d from the column
faces. The specimens of series 3 were designed to fail outside the shear-reinforced zone. Therefore, a
tighter stud spacing (S = 0.5d) was chosen with the studs extending to approximately 2.3d from the
column faces. However, except for specimen 4 that has a thickness of 160 mm, all specimens with
shear reinforced zone that extended to 4d from the column face failed by punching inside the shear
reinforced zone.
Shear bolts were applied later for shear strengthening of interior slab-column connections
(Adetifa and Polak 2005; Bu and Polak 2009). The bolts were installed in holes drilled in a slab in
concentric perimeters around the column. It has been found that lateral load-resisting capacity,
lateral drift capacity and ductility of the specimens increased as the number of peripheral rows of
shear bolts was increased.

2 DESIGN OF STEEL SHEAR BOLTS

A steel shear bolt consists of a bolt stem, a head at one end and a washer and nut at the other
end (Ebead and Marzouk 2002; El-Salakawy et al. 2003). In a strengthened slab, the functions of
the steel bolts are: to transfer the horizontal forces generated between the steel plates and concrete
plates, to increase the punching shear strength since steel bolts act, with the aid of the steel plates,
as vertical shear reinforcement and to improve the concrete behaviour by confining the concrete
core by allowing a triaxial stress state to develop in bolting area between the steel plates due to the
pre-applied torque. Notably tightening the shear bolts by applying a wrench torque provides a
similar successful method to post-tensioning. Furthermore, the increased bearing capacity between
the concrete slab and the steel plates provides a clamping effect, and the strengthened area behaves
in a similar way to composite sections. However, bolting construction has the drawbacks of
possible weakening of the concrete components due to drilling of bolt holes through the concrete,
and these deficiencies could be minimized by increasing the spacing between shear bolts. In the
following sections, failure modes of slabs reinforced with shear reinforcement are discussed, since
shear bolts are designed as vertical shear reinforcement.

2.1 Area of Shear Bolts

This section describes the design of the flat concrete slab strengthened with steel shear bolts,
including the strength of the concrete slab and layout of the shear bolts in the slab. The following
design guidelines are provided for cross (orthogonal) pattern. However, these guidelines are still valid
for radial pattern. A theoretical model is developed to calculate minimum area of shear bolts to
develop ductile flexural failure.
In this model, it is assumed that the column force is transferred to the slab through four
analogue trusses as shown in Figure 1. Each truss has an equivalent width equal to the column side
dimension. All shear studs are lumped into one vertical member. The dashed truss members shown
in Figure 2 represent the compression forces in concrete. The idealized truss model does not assign
any shear forces to the concrete, and the truss is statically indeterminate.
Before concrete shear cracking is induced, shear forces are carried equally by diagonal tensile
and compression stress fields. Cracking is assumed to occur when the principal tensile strength
reaches the tensile strength of concrete. After cracking, all the shear forces are carried by studs. To
simplify calculations, it can be assumed that studs have yielded to make the truss statically
determinate, as shown in Figure 2. The compression diagonals originate at the load, and are defined
as a compression fan. The number of such diagonals in the fan must be such that the entire vertical
load is resisted by the vertical force components in these diagonals. A similar compression fan
2
exists at the support. Between the compression fans is a compression field consisting of parallel
diagonal struts. The angle θ of the compression field is determined by the number of stirrups needed
to equilibrate the vertical loads in the fans.
C

C
so s s s s

Figure 1: Effective Width of Truss Model Idealization for Slab Column Connection

C
Punching
Av fyv shear crack

dv h

s s s s so

Av,min fyv
s
co
dv
co

dv
s

dv

s
Equilibrium of forces along
punching shear crack

Figure 2: Equivalent Plastic Truss Model Idealization and Equilibrium of Bottom Chord

Joints

2.2 Truss Model Design

In this section, the minimum shear reinforcement is evaluated based on truss model
assumptions. Figure 2 illustrates the stress fields in the core of a thick plate after cracking. Prior to
cracking, shear is carried equally by diagonal tensile and compressive stresses at 45º. After
cracking, shear is carried by tensile strength of vertical members. Transverse shear reinforcement is
necessary and flexural reinforcement must be increased to account for transverse shear and to
reduce diagonal crack opening. The minimum shear reinforcement (Rizk and Marzouk 2011) can be
evaluated as follows:
Av ,min f yv  2 f ct C d v sin  cos  (1)
 v ,min C h cot  f yv  1.44 f ct C h sin  cos  (2)
f
 v ,min  1.44 ct sin 2  (3)
f yv

3
 Where, C is the column side length; fct is the direct tensile strength of concrete (Marzouk and
Chen 1995) or any other fracture mechanics test, f ct  0.33 f c' , and fyv is the yield strength of shear
reinforcement. The angle of the failure plane, θ, normally varies between 22º and 45º based on
experimental findings (Marzouk and Jiang 1996; Hegger et al. 2009), tending to the smaller value
for the minimum shear reinforcement ratio. To obtain minimum shear reinforcement ratio, the angle
of shear crack, θ, is taken equal to 30º. Introducing the term (lch/h)0.33 to account for the size effect,
Eq. (3) can be written as follows:
f c' 1
 v , m in  0 .12 (4)
f yv ( l ch / h ) 0 .3 3
Where, h is the slab thickness. The size of the fracture process zone is represented by a
material property called the characteristic length, lch. A higher value of lch reflects that the material
is less brittle and a smaller value means that the material is more brittle. Approximate formula by
Zhou et al. (1995) can be used as follows:

lch   3.84 f c'  580 (mm) (5)

Hence, Eq. (3.4) could be written as follows:
0.33
f c'  h 
 v ,min  0.12   (6)
f yv  3.84 f c'  580 
Eq. (6) could be used to calculate the minimum amount of shear reinforcement that is
required to force the shear cracks to develop inside the shear reinforced zone and hence a ductile
failure is achieved.

h h

Shear bolts
Sandwich steel plates

Figure 3: Shear Crack Angle in Slab Zones with Shear Bolts

2.3 Sandwich Model Design

Generally, slab elements are subjected to eight stress resultants, i.e., the three membrane force
components Nx, Ny, and Nxy = Nyx, two transverse shear force components Vx, and Vy, two flexural
moments Mx and My, and torsional moment Mxy = Myx (see Figure 4a). Marti (1990) introduced a
sandwich model where the covers are assumed to carry moments and membrane forces, while the
transverse shear forces are assigned to the core. As a simple approximation, Marti (1990) assumed
that the middle planes of the cover elements coincide with the middle planes of the reinforcing
meshes close to the slab surfaces. In the current model, the steel plates represent the sandwich cover
elements (see Figure 4b) and the concrete slab represents the shear core.

4
 Assuming equal steel plates cover element thicknesses at top and bottom, hs, the lever arm of
the in-plane forces in the cover elements, dv, is equal to slab thickness plus the steel plate
thickness, d v  h  hs . For the dimensioning of the in-plane steel plates, the well-known limit-design
method for reinforced concrete membrane elements can be employed.

X l
Y Z

Nx M yx

l
Nyx Vxz Mx
Ny Nxy
My Vyz
Mxy

(a) Stress Resultants

Top (Compression)
steel plate

Nx - M x
2 hef
Nyx- M yx
hs 2 hef hef =h+hs
Nxy -M xy
N y- M y 2 hef
2 hef

Cracked slab

Vxz
h
Vyz Bottom (tension)
steel plate

Nx M x
+
2 hef
Nyx M yx
hs +
2 hef
Ny M y Nxy M xy
+
+
2 hef 2 hef

(b) Sandwich Model

Figure 4: Statics of Plate Elements: (a) Stress Resultants; (b) Sandwich Model

Accordingly, the necessary resistances of the reinforcements (sandwich steel plates) in the
two orthogonal directions x and y are equal to Nx + k [Nxy] and Ny + [Nxy]/k, respectively, where k
denotes an arbitrary positive factor and Nx, Ny, and Nxy, are the applied membrane force
components. Hence, from Figure 4b, we obtain the requirements:
M N Vx2 M N Vx Vy 
As x f y  x  x   k  xy  xy   (11)
dv 2 2 Vo tan   dv 2 2 Vo tan  
and

5
 My Ny V y21  M xy N xy Vx V y 
As y f y        (12)
dv 2 2 Vo tan  k  d v 2 2 Vo tan  
Where, Asx and Asy denote the cross-sectional areas of the orthogonal bottom steel plates per unit
width of the slab, and Vo is the principal diagonal shearing force carried by the shear core.

3 DESIGN OF STEEL PLATES

The flexural ultimate-load capacity of plate slabs can be calculated from yield-line theory
(Rankin and Long 1987.) The flexural punching load required for this mechanism is:
Pflex  k M b (13)
From consideration of the virtual work done by the actions on the yield lines, the solution for
this mechanism is:
 L 
k  8  0.172  (14)
 l C 
Where, L is side dimension of a square slab, l is side dimension between supports of a square
slab and C side dimension of square column. The value of yield moment, Mb, could be calculated
from the widely accepted equation proposed by ACI 318 as follows:
M b   f y d 2 1  0.59   f y f c'   (15)
Hence, the area for steel plate could be obtained as follows:
M
As f y  b (16)
h
3.1 Unilateral Buckling of Compression Steel Plate

Steel plates are bonded to the concrete surface at the upper and lower sides of the slab using
epoxy resin and with the aid of the tightened steel bolts’ nuts. Such plates, when acting compositely
with the concrete slab, are subjected to predominantly bending that may cause unilateral local
buckling effect as shown in Figure 5.
The shear bolts provide complete restraint against buckling at discrete points, the glue may
also inhibit local buckling between these nodal points since it acts as a continuous elastic restraint.
A related form of composite behaviour that may be accompanied by unilateral plate buckling is in
the retrofit of reinforced concrete beams by gluing and bolting steel plates to their sides. The
mechanics of analyzing plates glued to reinforced concrete beams based on composite theories was
addressed, and the unique mechanical concepts of transverse partial-interaction and transverse
partial-shear-connection in side-plated beams were evaluated. Composite action produces bending
and axial actions (but only minor shear actions) that can lead to premature failure of the side plate
due to unilateral local buckling. Although the glue (epoxy) could be assumed to provide a
continuous elastic restraint to steel plates, it must be borne in mind that in many situations the glue
cannot be mobilized in the post-buckling range, since the strength of the connection of the plate to
the concrete surface is not governed by the glue, but by the much lower tensile strength of the
concrete.
The buckling of long thin plates in contact with a rigid medium subjected to compression was
considered. The researcher considered boundary conditions that represented internal and out stand
elements, and plates with discrete restraints.
Smith et al. (1999a) and Bradford et al. (2000) conducted significant theoretical and
experimental works on unilateral buckling of steel plates bolted in retrofitted concrete beams. The
rationale for excluding the influence of the glue is that it may degrade at elevated temperatures, or
due to other adverse environmental factors.

6
 Tension

Unilateral local
buckling

Figure 5: Unilateral Local Buckling of Strengthened Plate

Smith et al. (1999b) reported theoretical and experimental buckling studies of full-scale re-
inforced concrete beams side-plated by bolting. It was established in the tests that practical bolting
configurations provide not only discrete point nodes against buckling, but also buckling nodal lines
transverse to the longitudinal axis of the beam. The bolts are assumed to provide line supports that
enable the modeling of combinations of simply supported, clamped and free edges. The
phenomenon of unilateral constraint local buckling of the external steel plate under reversed cyclic
loading was observed (Su and Zhu 2005). Test results revealed that the minimum thickness of the
steel plates (6 mm) can effectively mitigate buckling of the plate.

4 RETROFITTING ARRANGEMENTS

4.1 Layout of Shear Bolts

Shear failure of plate slabs could occur in different locations, one of which is punching
within the shear-reinforced zone. However, this failure type will allow the steel plates to be
mobilized and a more ductile behaviour. In that situation, punching shear failure is eliminated and
is transformed into ductile flexural failure. Shear strength is thus governed by the contribution of
concrete and of the transverse reinforcement. To force punching shear cracks to develop within the
shear-reinforced zone, shear reinforcement (bolts) should be extended to suitable distance from the
vicinity of concentrated loads. In concrete walls, the shear reinforcement (strengthening) is
recommended for the area that can be subjected to a significant concentrated transverse load
(transverse pressure). Layout of shear bolts requires determination of spacing between shear bolts
and distance between the support faces and the outer-most peripheral line of shear bolts.

4.2 Spacing of Shear Bolts

The spacing between shear bolts could be obtained based on previous measurements of the
punching shear crack angle inside the slab. The angle of the punching failure plane, θ, normally
varies between 22º and 45º. For normal strength concrete, the angle of inclination θ has been
experimentally determined to be between 26º and 30º, whereas for high strength concrete the angle
varies between 32º and 38º as determined through experimental testing by Marzouk and Hussein
(1991). Hegger et al. (2009) found that the observed angle of the failure cone was approximately 45º
in all reinforced concrete footings without shear reinforcement. Hallgren et al. (1998) found that the
shear crack propagated from the plane of the flexural reinforcement to the slab-column root was at
an angle of about 50º to 60º, measured between the shear crack and the horizontal plane; this is
based on tests on column footings. However, this is a considerably steeper angle than the shear
crack angles observed in punching shear tests of more slender slabs. Based on these experimental
findings the angle of failure plane θ could be assumed to have a value of 30º-35º for normal slab
thicknesses of less than 200 mm, 35º-45º for medium slab thicknesses of 200-500 mm and 45º-60º

7
for thick slabs that are greater than 500 mm. Based on the assumption of the shear crack angle, the
maximum spacing between shear bolts could be recommended as illustrated in Figure 3.
h
For θ=30º-35º, h=100-200 mm Smax   1.4 ~ 1.7 h (17)
tan 
h
For θ=35º-45º, h=300-500 mm Smax   1.0 ~ 1.4 h (18)
tan 
h
For θ=45º-60º, h≥500 mm Smax   0.8 ~ 1.0 h (19)
tan 
ACI 421.1R-08 design guidelines allow the use of two studs spacing, S=0.5d and 0.75d,
however, the lower value for stud spacing is not suitable for strengthening using shear bolts,

S=d

4d

2d 4d

So S S S S/2

Figure 6: Proposed Layout for Shear Bolts

5 CONCLUSION

It is concluded that the minimum number of steel bolts needed to ensure full interaction
between steel plates and slab is eight bolts. In addition, the steel plates with the suggested
dimensions and steel bolts with the suggested configuration are well utilized. The strain in the steel
plates and bolts indicates a complete composite interaction between concrete and steel plates.
The strengthened specimens show stiffer behaviour than that of the reference specimen.
Moreover, the average ductility of the strengthened specimens is about 30% more than the ductility
of the reference specimens. The energy absorption of the strengthened specimens is greatly
increased due to the strengthening process. The average increase of the energy absorption of the
strengthened specimens over that of the reference specimen is about 100%.
A proposed arrangement of shear bolts in a cross pattern is recommended for slab-column
and beam-column connections. However, a radial distribution of shear studs such as that
recommended by European standards could also be used. For walls, headed bars or bolts, are
recommended to be arranged in orthogonal directions. It is recommended to extend the distance
between the punching loading area and the outer-most peripheral line of shear bolts to a distance of
not less than 4d, in order to force shear cracks to develop within the shear reinforced zone. The
minimum spacing between shear bolts should not be taken less than 0.75d. Though, a minimum
spacing, S=d, is considered to be more practical and more research is required to support this
guideline, Nonetheless, this preliminary guideline needs further research investigation for thick
8
beams or slabs. It is recommended to provide the minimum amount of shear bolts in order to force
shear cracks to develop within shear reinforced zone as proposed by theoretical model to prevent
brittle shear failure in the vicinity of concentrated loads.
The recommended dimensions of the strengthening steel plates and the number of the steel
bolts are sufficient to achieve positive results. The steel plate side dimension should equal the
column size plus four times the slab depth. The minimum thickness of the steel plates should be
taken at least equal to 6 mm to satisfy rust protection requirements (6 mm).

NOTATION:

Ac = area of concrete cross section

As = area of reinforcement within the effective embedment thickness
Av ,min = minimum web reinforcement area
Az ,min = area of minimum shear reinforcement
b = width of the section (also plate span)
bw = minimum effective web width
c = the length of a side of a square column
d = effective depth to the centric of the tensile reinforcement
f c' = uniaxial compressive strength of concrete (cylinder strength)
fy = yield stress of steel
fyv = yield stress of steel bolts
h = section height
lch = characteristic length
Mx = bending moment per unit length
My = bending moment per unit length
M xy = torsional moment per unit length
Nx = in plane axial applied force per unit length
Ny = in plane axial applied force per unit length
N xy = in plane shearing force per unit length
S = maximum spacing of shear reinforcement
Vx = shearing force per unit length
Vy = shearing force per unit length
θ = the angle between stirrups and longitudinal axis of the beam
z,min = the minimum shear reinforcement ratio

REFERENCES

[1] ACI 421.1R-08. [2008]. Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (318-08) and
Commentary, (421.1R-08). American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI.

[2] Adetifa, B., and Polak, M. [2005]. Retrofit of Interior Slab Column Connections for Punching
using Shear Bolts, ACI Structural Journal, Vol. 102, No. 2, 2005, pp. 268-274.

[3] Bu, W., and Polak, M. [2009]. Seismic Retrofit of Reinforced Concrete Slab-Column
Connections Using Shear Bolts,” ACI Structural Journal, Vol. 106, No. 4, pp. 514-522.
9
 [4] Birkle, G., and Dilger, W. [2008]. Influence of Slab Thickness on Punching Shear Strength,
ACI Structural Journal, Vol. 105, No. 2, pp. 180-188.

[5] Dilger, W., and Ghali, A. [1981]. Shear reinforcement for concrete slabs, Journal of the
Structural Division, ASCE, Vol. 107, No. 12, pp. 2403-2420.

[6] Ebead, U., and Marzouk, H. [2002]. “Strengthening of Plate Slabs using Steel Plates,” ACI
Structural Journal, Vol. 99, No. 1, pp. 23-31.

[7] Elgabry, A., and Ghali, A. [1990]. Design of Stud-Shear Reinforcement for Slabs, ACI
Structural Journal, Vol. 87, No. 3, pp. 350-361.

[8] El-Salakawy, E., Polak, M., and Soudki, K. [2003]. New Shear Strengthening Technique for
Concrete Slab-Column Connections,” ACI Structural Journal, Vol. 100, No. 3, pp. 297-304.

[9] Hegger, J., Ricker, M., and Sherif, A. [2009]. Punching Strength of Reinforced Concrete
Footings,” ACI Structural Journal, Vol. 106, No. 5, pp. 706-716

[10] Rizk, E., and Marzouk, H. [2011]. Minimum Shear Reinforcement for Thick Plates and
Two-way Slabs, Engineering Structures, ENGSTRUT-D-10-00652, final review for publication

[11] Mokhtar, A., Ghali, A., and Dilger, W. [1985] Stud shear reinforcement for flat concrete
plates. ACI Structural Journal, Vol. 82, No. 5, pp. 676-683.

[12] Marzouk, H., and Jiang, D. [1997]. Experimental Investigation on Shear Enhancement
Types for High-Strength Concrete Plates, ACI Structural Journal, Vol. 93, No. 1, pp. 49-58.

[13] Marzouk, H., and Hussein, A., “Experimental Investigation on the Behavior of High-
Strengt Concrete Slabs,” ACI Structural Journal, Vol. 88, No. 6, 1991, pp. 701-713.

[14] Smith, S., Bradford, M., and Oehlers, D. [1999a]. Local Buckling of Side-Plated R.C
Beams. I. Theoretical Study,” J. of Structural Engi., ASCE, Vol. 125, No. 6, pp. 622-634.

[15] Smith, S., Bradford, M., and Oehlers, D. [1999b]. Local Buckling of Side-Plated R.C
Beams. II. Experimental Study,” J. of Structural Engi., ASCE, Vol. 125, No. 6, pp. 635-643.

[16] Su, R., and Zhu, Y. [2005]. Experimental and Numerical Studies of External Steel Plates
Strengthened Reinforcement Concrete Coupling Beams, Engineering Structures, Vol. 27,
No.10, 2005, pp.1537-1550.

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