EXPERIMENTS FOR DETERMINING THE LOAD BEARING CAPACITY OF TENSION LOOP JOINTS

13 PRISMATIC TEST PIECES WITH DIFFERING LOOP JOINTS WERE LOADED TO THE BREAKING POINT, WHEREBY THE FORMATION OF CRACKS AND DISPLACEMENTS WERE MEASURED IN THE AREA OF THE JOINT. RESULTS: (A) FOR JOINTS WITH ADDITIONAL STRAIGHT LENGTHS OF OVERLAP OF 20 D(E), (D(E) = DIAMETER OF BAR) THE BREAKING LOAD OF THE STEEL IS REACHED WITH A LOOP DIAMETER OF D(S) GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO 10 D(E); (B) WITHOUT OVERLAP THE LOOP DIAMETER MUST BE D(S) GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO 15 D(E), OR APPROPRIATE TRANSVERSE REINFORCEMENT MUST BE ARRANGED; (C) FOR LOOP JOINTS WITH ADDITIONAL OVERLAP IT IS POSSIBLE TO ADD THE FORCES DUE TO LOOP ANCHORAGE AND BONDING FOR THE LENGTH OF OVERLAP.