Evaluation of Wood Sole Plate Anchorage to Concrete Under Monotonic and Cyclic Loading
The purpose of this testing program is to evaluate the performance of cast-in-place foundation anchor bolt connections representative of those used in wood-frame residential construction. This testing program responds to the recent changes in the American Concrete Institute’s Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (ACI 318) that significantly reduce the design capacity of near-edge concrete anchors. This reduction has brought into question the conventional practice of using 2x4 sole plates with 1/2-inch bolts spaced at 4 feet or 6 feet on center. However, the new provisions of ACI 318 are based on research of anchorage systems for commercial and industrial construction and use conservative extrapolation of this research to the design of residential systems. Because significant differences exist in construction practices between residential and commercial applications including bolt diameters, edge distances, embedment lengths, bearing capacity of the anchored material, concrete strength, line of bolts spaced apart vs. bolt clusters, etc., it is envisioned that results of this study will help improve accuracy of design methods for residential anchors by capturing representative failure modes, response variability, and applicable safety margins.
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