Unit II

Curtailment and Detailing

Structures VI
INTRODUCTION
 To economize the design of a flexural member, the tensile bars are
curtailed at the section beyond which it is no longer required to resist
flexure(bending) given that the remaining reinforcement of the
flexural member will be able to resist the bending moment and shear
created on the flexural member safely.
 The reinforcement will be provided to a certain length at the supports
called the development length. The extra part that is removed from
the reinforcement which forms the curtailed reinforcement.
 The curtailed bars in flexural members are extended for a distance
equal to 12 times the diameter of the reinforcement bar or effective
depth, whichever is greater, except at simple support or free ends of
the cantilever.
LAP LENGTH
 Lap Length: Lap length is one of the important term in the
reinforcement. This is usually confused with another important term
called development length and anchorage length. In this article, the lap
lengths of bars is discussed. During the placement of steel in
Reinforced concrete structure, if the required length of single bar may
fall short. To get the desired design length, lapping of two bars side by
side is done. An alternative to this is to provide mechanical couplers

 Lapping can be defined as the overlapping of two bars side by side to up

to the design length. Usually, the stock length of steel bars is limited to
12m. This is for easy transportation of steel bars to the construction site.
For example, imagine there is a need to build a 100ft tall column. But
it’s not practically available. Hence the bars are cut every second story
Continued
 Then the tension forces are required to be transferred from one
bar to the other bar at the location of discontinuity of the bar.
So the second bar is kept closely to the first bar and
overlapping is done. This amount of overlapping between two
bars is called “lap length”. Lapping is usually done where
minimum bending stress is encountered. In general, lap length
is 50d which means 50 times the bar diameter, if both bars are
of same diameter.
Lap Length in Tension
The lap length including anchorage value of hooks shall be

 For flexural tension – Ld or 30d whichever is greater is

considered.
 For direct tension – 2Ld or 30d whichever is greater is
considered.
 The straight length of lapping of bars shall not be less than
15d or 20cm.
Lap length in Compression
 The lap length is equal to the development length calculated in
compression but not less than 24d.

 For Different Diameter Bars:

When the bars of different diameters are to be spliced, the lap
length is calculated considering the smaller diameter bar.
Lap Slicing
 Lap splices should not be catered for the bars which
are having diameter greater than 36 mm. In such
cases, welding should be considered. But if welding
is also not feasible in some conditions, then lapping
may be allowed for the bars larger than 36 mm
diameter. But along with lapping, additional spirals of
6 mm should be provided around the lapped bars.