Required tie spacing to prevent inelastic local buckling of longitudinal reinforcements in RC and FRC elements

Abstract Compressed reinforcement buckling in concrete columns can reduce ductility in structural elements. In order to avoid this, design codes propose maximum required tie spacing. Nonetheless, they do not incorporate the positive effect of concrete fibers in their formulation, whose capability of delaying buckling has been proved. For this reason, recommendations for maximum required tie spacing for elements made with concrete, with or without steel fibers, and with normal or high strength, are proposed in this article. In order to achieve this, the mixed model proposed by Pereiro-Barcelo and Bonet was extended to consider elements made of HSC with and without steel fibers thanks to the results of an experimental campaign of HSC columns with and without fibers, under monotonic loading. In these tests, the buckling critical load in compressed reinforcement was experimentally determined in all the columns. In addition, a comparison of the proposed transverse concrete separation with respect to the recommendations proposed by the main existing codes was made.