December 12, 2019

Professor Shyh-Jiann Hwang

Director General
National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering
Taipei, Taiwan

Dr. Hwang:

Good day!

I have the following inquiries regarding my interpretation of some considerations on the parameters in the joint
shear calculations:

1. Most papers on strut and tie model don’t use 1.25fy in magnifying the probable forces in the joint and just
use the actual fs demand instead. This is because their formulas are based on actual tests and these
tests do not reach yielding, hence 1.25fy was not used. Can this be applied on your equation in checking
joint shear, just the actual fs of the beam?

2. If the ACI provisions will be followed on perimeter joints, there would be no distance from the face of the
beam to the face of the column resulting to a smaller joint area. However, the New Zealand code has a
different definition of joint width allowing approximately additional 26.5º (see Figures 1 and 2) for the joint
area. Can we use the New Zealand formulas as basis of deriving the effective width of the beam-column
joint?

Figure 1

AVIDA TOWERS GATEWALK (SDK) Page 1

 Figure 2

3. For the horizontal tie reinforcement, can I use the full Fy if the ties fall outside the 0.2h as shown in Figure
3?

Figure 3

4. Can I use the full area of all vertical bars in the consideration of the vertical tie joint shear reinforcement?

AVIDA TOWERS GATEWALK (SDK) Page 2

Your comments on my interpretation will be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

Rolando

AVIDA TOWERS GATEWALK (SDK) Page 3