Bar buckling in ductile reinforced concrete (RC) walls is a commonly observed failure mode which limits their deformation
capacity. To delay this undesirable failure mode in RC walls, most design codes emphasize on restricting the spacing of
transverse reinforcement in the plastic hinges of RC walls. On the other hand, past research has shown that bar buckling in RC
structures could span multiple tie spacings and the efficacy of transverse reinforcement to restrain bars against buckling is a
function of the effective axial stiffness of transverse reinforcement in addition to the spacing of transverse reinforcement. To
overcome these design limitations, a new mechanics-based design procedure to control bar buckling in ductile RC walls was
recently proposed. In this paper, the newly developed guidelines for designing transverse reinforcement to control bar buckling
in RC walls are summarized. Restrictions on both the axial stiffness of the tie legs and spacing of transverse reinforcement
along the longitudinal reinforcing bars are proposed to confine bar buckling between the consecutive stirrups. Further, the
average cyclic stress-strain response of reinforcing bars is utilized to limit compressive stress degradation in reinforcing bars
until the design ductility demands are met
