Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
(OP)
ACI 318 allows the use of single layer wall reinforcing (single curtain) for walls less than or equal to 10" thick. anything thicker than 10" shall have (2) layers.
We did an inspection on a post-tension concrete slab on cast-in-place concrete shear walls structure. the concrete shear walls are the (2) stair cores at each end. they are 10" wall with single layer of reinforcing. we found diagonal cracks along the 2 faces of the shear wall cores from 1st to 5th floor consistently. these cracks were formed during construction on the 6th floor. no exterior envelope walls were constructed during that time, i.e. minimal wind.
In my opinion, these cracks are not due to wind given the heavy reinforcing in the walls and % of wind load the structure was seeing when the cracks formed. The structure is intended to be 16 stories tall, so at 6th floor construction with no envelope walls, the wall reinforcing, per our calculation, was way more than sufficient. Additionally, per our calculation, the overall design was in compliance to the code.
And that's what get us puzzled!
We suspect they are due to combined reasons:
1. the post-tension effect (precompression) of the slab, which caused forced displacement to the walls.
2. single layer of reinforcing which causes the wall to have 5" concrete until the stress hits the steel.
3. with early strength mix of PT slab, the wall strength may still be in 60% range, while the slab is being stressed.
Any input would be greatly appreciated. We are really puzzled by this phenomenon, and are wondering if any of you have seen this, that could share some insights.
Thanks.
We did an inspection on a post-tension concrete slab on cast-in-place concrete shear walls structure. the concrete shear walls are the (2) stair cores at each end. they are 10" wall with single layer of reinforcing. we found diagonal cracks along the 2 faces of the shear wall cores from 1st to 5th floor consistently. these cracks were formed during construction on the 6th floor. no exterior envelope walls were constructed during that time, i.e. minimal wind.
In my opinion, these cracks are not due to wind given the heavy reinforcing in the walls and % of wind load the structure was seeing when the cracks formed. The structure is intended to be 16 stories tall, so at 6th floor construction with no envelope walls, the wall reinforcing, per our calculation, was way more than sufficient. Additionally, per our calculation, the overall design was in compliance to the code.
And that's what get us puzzled!
We suspect they are due to combined reasons:
1. the post-tension effect (precompression) of the slab, which caused forced displacement to the walls.
2. single layer of reinforcing which causes the wall to have 5" concrete until the stress hits the steel.
3. with early strength mix of PT slab, the wall strength may still be in 60% range, while the slab is being stressed.
Any input would be greatly appreciated. We are really puzzled by this phenomenon, and are wondering if any of you have seen this, that could share some insights.
Thanks.






RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
If not, how is the volume change between the rigid shear walls accounted for?
How long is the building?
Are the stair walls oriented in both directions, with the length, width, etc..?
Love sketches
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
the overall lateral system is composed of 2 stairs at each end, elevator at middle, and some blade walls in between.
it is obvious that the restraint is from the 2 stair cores.
to answer your question: no, there is not slab joint specified or observed in the slab.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
Also it sounds like there may be more shearwalls than needed. A consequence of this is that the walls will be relatively lightly reinforced and more prone to cracking.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
I don't think that detail works. How are you handling the shear transfer in the wall across the plane with the felt paper in it? The bars can be used for shear friction, but there is no coefficient of friction value for concrete to felt paper.
hokie-
Do you think the PT has more to do with the cracking in the walls than shrinkage of the slab? I would think shrinkage of the slab would manifest itself as cracking in the slab, not cracking in the wall.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
Both are components of the slab shortening. The elastic shortening and creep due to post-tensioning typically comprises only about 1/3 the shortening due to shrinkage. So it's just a matter of the weaker element cracking first. This is just as much an issue in conventionally reinforced structures as it is in post-tensioned.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
Agreed. I was thinking that the shearwalls would have much greater capacity in shear than the slab would in tension and the shrinkage would cause cracks in the slab. When I think about the PT, though, it's driving the two walls together and because of the nature of the PT, couldn't manifest itself as cracking in the slab.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
I agree that the walls are cracked due to slab shortening. It probably manifest as it did because the older, lower slabs were shrinking while there was restraint by the newer, upper slab(s). Or simply because the force required to crack the walls wasn't reached until several floors were pulling on them.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
TXstructural-you brought up a great point about the restraint from slab below and above. We reinspected the structure after all floors were built, we noticed that the wall cracks only happen near middle third of the height, which kind of match what you said.
With the nature of post tension construction, the precompression is applied at slab edges at each end from tendon anchors. The 2 stair cores that cracked are at each end of slab where the precompression is applied. Hence, the slab will not be in compression until the wall gives.
I wonder a slab construction joint in the middle of slab would help.
I will scan the plan later the day for you all to look at.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
I'm just not seeing it. Per ACI, there is no shear friction for the case of concrete cast against felt paper. What coefficient of friction would you use? Additionally, bars that are completely perpendicular to the shear force (as the vertical bars would be in this case) have no do no contribute to the shear capacity. In reality, they do, but ACI doesn't recognize the contribution, so how do you define it? Especially since the bars are doing double duty now.
Are you saying that the 3" diameter grout crossing the plane counts as a shear friction surface?
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
Shear friction is purely the shear capacity of the bars. Slab will bear on top of wall with dowels into walls. Wall verticals extend from tier below to above slab engaging the slab dowels. No contribution from concrete friction is considered, just like hollow core plank on cmu wall detail, with bent dowels into hollow core planks to achieve diaphragm shear transfer to shear walls.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
A plan of the floor showing the stair cores would help, or some photos. But yes, a slab construction joint would help, but not if construction continued at pace. What you really need is a delayed pour strip, left for as long as possible.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
see attached simplified diagram for confidentiality of the project.
the clouded areas are the cracked region.
as you can see, the stair cores are located at each end of the banded tendon. banded tendons are running plan left-right direction with uniform tendons running plan top-bottom.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
Even if you allow(ed) for the PT shortening by using a pour joint, you still have to contend with the thermal and long term volume changes that will occur over the next 20 years. The shearwalls at the two ends will be having a "tug-of-war" over the slab (and center shear wall) and someone's going to lose. So far the two end walls have lost.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
Personally I would never design anything over 7 inches with only one layer of reinforcement not even a small precast panel let alone an insitu shear wall.
Just because the code allows it does not mean that it is right for every situation.
The problem is that the shrinkage stress of the concrete is over the whole width of the wall whereas the restraint from the reinforcement is only over the middle zone meaning that the cracks on the outer face are much wider than they would be with reinforcement at each face.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
When you add shearwalls at the end of a building like this they need to be able to deflect to allow the slab to shorten.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
The problem with that reasoning is that the central core does not affect the total slab shortening. Take out the central core, and provided the two end conditions are identical, the shortening affecting the end walls is the same. It is a difficult issue, caused by the overall floor plan design, and cannot be completely solved. Time is the friend of the structural engineer, but is the enemy of the builder.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
When you restrain a slab out at the edge like that on a PT slab you are asking for problems. If they hadn't used the portion of the walls that is parallel with the long building dimension the walls would have been much more flexible laterally and they may have leaned over enough to relieve the stresses.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
"Restraint Cracks and their mitigation in unbonded post-tensioned building structures"
Bijan A. Aalami, and Florian G. Barth
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
We agree completely. The point I was trying to make is that there are many structures where there is no central core, due to site constraints and/or architectural design. Unless we can somehow educate architects about these issues, the problem won't go away.
In structures with cores at the extremities, PT slabs are often a poor choice of system. It is difficult to actually get the PT into the slab without cracking the walls. And then, the additional shortening due to the PT and the typical lack of slab crack control reinforcement in these systems makes them much more prone to objectionable cracking than conventionally reinforced systems.
All my experience is with bonded PT, and the problems would be much greater with unbonded.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
Back to the original question I don't think ACI gives any guidance for reinforcement in a shearwall.
RE: Single Curtain Reinf. in 10" Shear Wall
- Delayed Pour Strip - a 3 to 5 ft wide strip of slab that is poured well after the P/T tensioning has been applied. Additionally, the tendons are pulled from the strip which reduces friction losses for the tendon vs a full length pull.
- Column sand pocket - Void form the base of the column with sand in order to create a hinge zone. Clean out and fill with concrete after tensioning. (I could see this being done for the walls as well).
- Column lengthening - drop the top of foundation elevation down in order to provide a more flexible column.
- Wall slip joints - Double koralath bearing pads (someone mentioned felt above?) and grout tubes for rebar where the slab meets the wall.
- Expansion joint - Double columns, double beams with a gap.
- Lateral bracing reconfiguration - In the above example, a posible fix would be to box the end stairs with columns/pilasters and infill with a nonstructural wall (in the length direction only) with a top slip joint and 1" side expansion joints
The critical locations where volume change is going to get you is foundation to 1st floor and last floor to roof (thermal concerns only).
In response to the post, I do not believe this is a single layer of rebar problem (item 2) or an early concrete strength problem (item 3 - this probably helped reduce cracking if anything) but a volume change problem (item 1)that would have occurred regardless of the rebar wall configuration.
For low seismic shearwalls, nothing stated hear would cause me to eliminate the option of using just one layer of rebar in a 10" or less thick wall.