Evaluation of Minimum Shear Reinforcement in Rc Beams

Abstract

Evaluation Of Minimum Shear Reinforcement In Rc Beams Failures in reinforced concrete (RC) structures under shear loads are proved to be brittle with the presence of web reinforcement. The minimum web reinforcement specified by many codes of practice is intended to maintain adequate reserve strength and ductility after the diagonal cracking and to control widening of diagonal cracking.

Further, there has been no consensus on the amount of shear reinforcement to be provided by different codes of practice, as they differ significantly in respect of HSC members. In this paper, many factors influencing the minimum shear reinforcement in RC beams has been incorporated. An expression has been proposed incorporating a wide range of concrete strengths. A comparison of the minimum shear reinforcement predicted by the proposed expression has been made with the codes of practice.

Conclusion

This report presents the results of a research study on the performance in shear of high-strength concrete beams, reinforced and prestressed, containing different amounts of shear reinforcement. The goal of the research program was to evaluate the behavior of beams with concrete compressive strengths up to 15 000 psi containing the minimum amount of shear reinforcement specified by the 318-05 Code and the 2004 AASHTO LRFD Specifications, and the applicability of the upper limit on the shear strength in the same documents.