Maes fom tha Design Srninar Shear Design of Concrete Buildings 5. Design of Pile Caps ‘Slender pile caps can be treated very similarly to spread footings, and the traditional sectional design approach can be used very effectively to design these members. The sectional design of a footing involves three steps: * determining the effective depth d to meet the one-way and two-way shear design requirements at the critical sections for one-way and two-way shear (d or d/2 from the face of the column or the piles) * determining the longitudinal reinforcement required at the critical section for flexure * checking the bearing stresses at the column and piles. In the case of deep pile caps, many piles may be within the critical section(s) for shear (e.g., many piles may be within d from the column), and therefore not generate any shear demand on the critical section; see Page 47. Prior to the 1983 edition, the ACI 318 code and commentary recommended that any piles within the critical section be simply ignored in the shear design calculations. This means that very deep pile caps will have essentially infinite shear strength. In the 1983 and subsequent editions of the ACI 318, the code provisions and commentary were changed so that designers were forced to use a critical section for shear such that the force from all piles are considered in the shear design calculations. Suddenly, many deep pile caps no longer met the code. The fact that a small change in location of the critical section had such a drastic consequence is an indication that a sectional approach is not appropriate for these members (deep pile caps).The CRSI Handbook developed a revised sectional approach for deep pile caps where the critical section is taken at the face of the column (for both one-way and two-way shear), and the concrete contribution is correspondingly increased to compensate for the increased shear demand on the critical sections. Little or no experimental verification of the CRSI method has been done. The Canadian concrete code Clause 15.1.3 states that where applicable, strut and tie models may be used to design footings in lieu of Clause 15. This clause should really be revised to state that strut and tie models must be used to design deep pile caps. The reason is that Clause 15 in the Canadian concrete code may be unconservative for deep piles for two reasons. Unlike the ACI code and CRSI Handbook, the Canadian code does not account for the shear demand from all piles. The second problem is that the flexural design procedures in Clause 15 are unconservative for deep pile caps. According to the strut and tie method, shear is transmitted between a column and the piles by direct compression struts (see Page 48). Shear design according to the strut and tie method involves checking the bearing stresses in the nodal zones. An experimental study was conducted at the University of British Columbia to determine the appropriate bearing stress limits for pile caps, and the resulting recommendation (without the @, factors) is shown on Page 49. A summary of the recommended design procedure for deep pile caps is given on Pages 50 to 52, and are discussed below. The first step is the shear design/ bearing stress check in which the effective depth d of the pile cap is determined and the dimensions of the column and piles are checked. Begin by using the traditional sectional shear design method, which involves checking one-way and two-way shear at d and d/2. Ignore any piles within the critical section as a subsequent bearing stress check will account for the effect of these. Complete the shear design by doing a check of the nodal zone bearing stresses. Do not worry about the internal dimensions of the nodes and struts. As long as the applied bearing stresses (under the column and above the piles) are within appropriate limits, the internal stress flow will not be critical. Check that the bearing stress at the column andpiles are within the limit given at the top of Page 57. The a accounts for confinement and depends on the traditional A,/A, ratio used to determine the effect of confinement on the bearing stress limit. The B factor accounts for the aspect ratio of the strut. Increasing the depth of the pile cap increases the aspect ratio of the diagonal compression strut and as a result increases the B factor and hence the bearing stress limit. Both factors are limited to 1.0, so increasing the confinement or depth of the pile cap beyond a certain level will not increase the bearing stress limit, ie., will not increase the shear strength of the pile cap. If the bearing stresses still do not meet the limit, the only solution is to increase the dimensions of the column or pile in order to reduce the bearing stress, or provide minimum crack control reinforcement in the pile cap so that higher bearing stress limits may be used. The second part of the pile cap design involves determining the requirement amount of longitudinal reinforcement. To do this use the strut and tie model shown on Page ? where the applied shear is assumed to be acting at c/4 from the column face. Note that it is highly unconservative to use a traditional flexural design approach where the critical section is assumed to be at the face of the column, and the flexural compression stress block is assumed to extend across the width of the pile cap. Such an approach normally results in the compression stress block being only a few millimeters deep. Spread the minimum amount of longitudinal reinforcement (0.2%) uniformly across the pile cap and concentrate the additional required reinforcement over the piles in such a way that it is effective in preventing the spreading apart of the piles. For further information see: Adebar, Perry, and Zhou, Z., “Design of Deep Pile Caps by Strut-and-Tie Models,” ACI Structural Journal, Vol 93, No. 4, July-Aug. 1996.AR Deep pile caps: CSA A23.3 [15.1.3] states: “Where applicable, strut and tie models may be-used in lieu of Clause 15.”47 When designing D-regions without minimum reinforcement (for crack control) in all directions, limit the maximum bearing stress to: f, < 0.6f, + aB Jf where: a = 0.33 (JAJA, - 1) B = 0.33 (hJb, - 1) < 1.0 ,B 20 A; / A, is defined in Clause 10.8 h, / b, represents the aspect ratio of the strut| Sornscony af, Torsion Resaolwe “e 1. Sheow Tesi / Rearing Check» » Heteywine “A eq echodks * A op tL mule op . one way shor @ A - tee skeyr @ AG Ctgreve piles wilt, +, )(by chedk : Sf tsocgh + Keogh (MPx ude) wleve # = Va ( JAA,—1) 4 Ic _ te ke ae om HY 8 S22 <2, et olsun t AM (2k) £6 ot puke e Anke (Yaaels vd 4 -+ eyied, 2. 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