Maximum Shear Strength of Slender RC Beams with Rectangular Cross Sections

Abstract

In the present study, the maximum shear strength of simply supported reinforced concrete beams with rectangular cross section was investigated. In beams with heavy shear reinforcement exceeding a certain limit, concrete crushing failure of the compression zone occurs before the yielding of the shear reinforcement. Thus, the maximum shear strength of such members is limited by the concrete crushing failure. In the present study, considering the shear-compression failure mechanism of the compression zone, the maximum shear strength was defined by material failure criteria of the concrete subjected to the combined compressive and shear stresses. The proposed model was applied to specimens tested in the previous studies. The results showed that the proposed method predicted the maximum shear strengths of the specimens with a reasonable precision. Furthermore, a design equation for the maximum shear strength was proposed to secure the ductile flexural behavior of beams without early shear failure.