Strut-and-Tie Design: What They

Didn't Teach You in School

Thomas Mendez, S.E.

WSP USA

www.oksea.org OSEA 2017 Fall Seminar

 Strut-and-Tie Design
• First introduced in
Appendix A of ACI
318-02.
• Moved to Chapter
23 in ACI 318-14,
but remains largely
unchanged.
American Concrete Institute

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 Strut-and-Tie Design
• When must strut-and-tie be used?
o Anywhere plane sections do not remain
plane (D-Regions).
o Any structural component not explicitly
mentioned in the code.

ACI 318-14

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 Strut-and-Tie Design
• When must
strut-and-
tie be used?

ACI 318-14

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 Strut-and-Tie Design
• When must
strut-and-
tie be used?

ACI 318-14

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 Strut-and-Tie Design
• When may strut-and-tie be used?
o Anywhere.

ACI 318-14

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Procedure
1. Understand how the structural component
is behaving.
2. Develop a truss model.
• Struts (compression)
• Ties (tension)
• Nodes (intersections)

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Procedure
3. Verify truss geometry is appropriate.
• Is equilibrium satisfied?
• Are angles greater than 25 degrees?
• Do struts intersect only at nodes?
4. Analyze the truss and determine truss
member forces.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Procedure
5. Check design capacities of struts, ties and
nodes.
• Verify adequate As is provided in ties.
6. Verify reinforcement can be developed at
critical locations.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #1
• Use simple,
statically
determinate strut-
and-tie models.

ACI SP-208

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #1
• Use simple,
statically
determinate strut-
and-tie models.

www.oksea.org OSEA 2017 Fall Seminar

 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #1
• Use simple,
statically
determinate strut-
and-tie models.

www.oksea.org OSEA 2017 Fall Seminar

 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #1
• Use simple,
statically
determinate strut-
and-tie models.

www.oksea.org OSEA 2017 Fall Seminar

 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #1
• Use simple,
statically
determinate strut-
and-tie models.

www.oksea.org OSEA 2017 Fall Seminar

 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #2
• Node geometry
does not need
to conform to
the triangular
shapes indicated
in most design
examples.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #2
• Node geometry
does not need
to conform to
the triangular
shapes indicated
in most design
examples.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #3
• Prevent bottle
shaped struts
by confining
concrete with
ties.

ACI 318-14

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #3
• Prevent bottle
shaped struts
by confining
concrete with
ties.

ACI 318-14

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #3
• Prevent bottle
shaped struts
by confining
concrete with
ties.

ACI 318-11

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #4
• Use local strut-
and-tie models to
design bottle
shaped struts
when
f’c > 6,000psi.
ACI 318-14

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #4
• Use local strut-
and-tie models to
design bottle
shaped struts
when
f’c > 6,000psi.
ACI 318-14

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #4
• Use local strut-
and-tie models to
design bottle
shaped struts
when
f’c > 6,000psi.

ACI Structural Journal/November-December 2006

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #4
• Use local strut-
and-tie models to
design bottle
shaped struts
when
f’c > 6,000psi.
ACI Structural Journal/November-December 2006

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #5
• Be careful with
"incomplete" or
"partial" strut and
tie models.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #5
• Be careful with
"incomplete" or
"partial" strut and
tie models.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #6
• Don't consider
steel plates
with welded
reinforcement
as act as a
compression
face of a CCC ACI 318-14
node.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #6
• Don't consider
steel plates
with welded
reinforcement
as act as a
compression
face of a CCC
node.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #7
• Discretize load
transfers at
intersections.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #7
• Discretize load
transfers at
intersections.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #7
• Discretize load
transfers at
intersections.

www.oksea.org OSEA 2017 Fall Seminar

 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #7
• Discretize load
transfers at
intersections.

www.oksea.org OSEA 2017 Fall Seminar

 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #7
• Discretize load
transfers at
intersections.

www.oksea.org OSEA 2017 Fall Seminar

 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #7
• Discretize load
transfers at
intersections.

ACI 318-14

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #7
• Discretize load
transfers at
intersections.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #8
• Understand
how struts
may form in
tension zones.

ACI 318-14

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #8
• Understand how struts may form in tension
zones.

Reinforced Concrete,
James Wight

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #8
• Understand how struts may form in tension
zones.

Reinforced Concrete,
James Wight

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #9
• Be mindful of
potential
construction
joints crossing
struts.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #9
• Be mindful of
potential
construction
joints crossing
struts.

www.oksea.org OSEA 2017 Fall Seminar

 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #9
• Be mindful of
potential
construction
joints crossing
struts.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #10
• Don’t forget
about self
weight.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #11
• Use
mechanical
terminators
to reduce
congestion.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #11
• Use
mechanical
terminators
to reduce
congestion.

www.oksea.org OSEA 2017 Fall Seminar

 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #11
• Use
mechanical
terminators
to reduce
congestion.

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #12

• Don’t allow shear stress to exceed 10 .

ACI 318-11

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #12

• Don’t allow shear stress to exceed 10 .

ACI 318-14

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 Strut-and-Tie Design Tip #13
• Don’t forget about serviceability and/or
stability.

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 Questions?

ACI Structural Journal/November-December 2006

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