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Concrete Wall Opening Reinforcement 1

reverbz

Structural
Aug 20, 2024
54
Hey Guys,

When you do concrete wall opening reinforcement, do you extend it all the way to the ends of the wall? Or do you just extend enough past the opening to develop it into where it needs to go? For example if I have openings with a "beam" of horizontal reinforcement below, can I just extend it enough into the beam to develop? I know it works load path wise as long as the beam is designed for it, but what about constructability? Is this typical to do or do you typically spec it to go full length?

Thank you!
 
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Depends on the size of panel but I typically would design it as a 'pier and spandrel' model
The pier reinforcement continues vertically the whole way to the top and the spandrel reinforcement extends to the far end of the panel past the opening
This is assuming a seismic design and a decent size opening - YMMV, there's more than one answer here IMO
 
Much depends on the kind of wall that we are talking about. Shear wall or just ordinary bearing wall? In a bearing wall, it's common just to detail the reinforcing Ld past the opening. In a shear wall where the beam might have some kind of coupling / outrigger function, you may need to detail things for explicit moment transfer.
 
Every firm (at least that I've worked for) has their own "standard" detail for how this reinforcing is done. One that I have used extends the bars a lap length + half the height of the opening.
 

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