concrete beams
M. D. Kotsovos
Codes of practice, such as C P l l 0 , ~ require structural RC beams with various arrangements of transverse rein-
members to be designed so as to exhibit ductile beha- forcement. The beams have been subjected to two-point
viour, since such behaviour gives ample warning of loading with values of av varying between approximately
impending collapse. Shear failures, therefore, are unde- 1 and 4 times the beam depth. The fundamental causes
sirable because of their brittle nature which allows little of shear failure are discussed concisely and this discus-
or no such warning. sion forms the basis of a comparative study of the
Current shear design procedures are based on the strength, deformation and failure characteristics exhi-
assumption that shear failures occur when the shear bited by the beams tested in the programme. An under-
capacity of a critical section is exceeded. Thus, the standing of these causes is essential for the development
objective of these procedures is to realistically assess of new shear design models compatible with the concept
the amount of transverse reinforcement required to of member rather than section design stipulated by the
carry that portion of the shear force in excess of the CEB commission IV (Stuttgart meeting, 9 May, 1984).
value which can be sustained by concrete alone. For
beams subjected to two-point loading, the critical sec-
tion is any section situated within the shear span (av) Causes of shear failure
and, therefore, reinforcing this span in compliance with It is generally considered that the behaviour of RC
the current strength requirements is generally con- beams without transverse reinforcement is dependent
sidered to safeguard against shear failure. on the value of the shear span to depth (av/d) ratio.
It has, however, been argued elsewhere, 2 that the For values of a,/d between approximately 1 and 6, such
concept of shear capacity of a critical section is insuffi- beams are expected to fail in shear before their flexural
cient to describe the underlying causes of the observed capacity is attained. For any other value, the beams
behaviour of RC beams, Shear failure appears to be should attain their flexural capacity. The behaviour of
associated with the stress conditions in the region of the latter beams has been the subject of previous experi-
the path along which the compressive force is transmit- mental work. 3
ted from support to support and not with the shear capa- As stated elsewhere, 2 the causes of shear failure are
city of particular sections. As a result, it has been likely to be associated with the stress conditions in the
suggested that compliance with current design proce- region of the path along which the compressive force
dures, although preventing shear failure, may not be is transmitted to the supports after the occurrence of
sufficient to provide adequate ductility.-" diagonal cracking; an analytical description of these con-
The present work, therefore, has been aimed at pro- ditions could lead to the formulation of a lower bound
viding experimental evidence to support the above argu- criterion for failure. On the basis of this argument, the
ments. This evidence has been obtained from tests on shear modes of failure exhibited by the beams under
0141-0296/87/01032-07/ $03.00
32 Eng. Struct. 1987, Vol. 9, J a n u a r y © 1987Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd
Shear failure o f RC beams: M. D. Kotsovos
--'-_s Path of C
.,_ Path of C
II--- av I~1 I
;l
3_ "1 I1
c
av/d 0.8
0 V
<2 >2 ~" 0.6
I
_l E
51 51
Z
0.4
0.2
I ,, 450
l t2 0 J I 1 I t
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
I- : I Beam Strain (mm rn- 1)
34 E n g . S t r u c t . 1987, V o l . 9, J a n u a r y
Shear failure o f RC b e a m s : M. D. Kotsovos
Figure 5 Typical mode of failure exhibited by beams without transverse reinforcement with av/d = 1.5
0.8 Measured/
oo
Beam Measured Calculated* Calculated
x
A 35 40.8 0.86
"- 0.6 B 41.5 40.8 1.02
C 41.5 43 0.97
0 D 40 40.8 0.98
-~ 0.4 E 26 43 0.61
* Corresponding to flexural capacity
~ 0.2
0
.J
C
Discussion o f results
Beams with a,/ d < 2
On the basis of the concept of 'shear capacity of a critical
section', beams A and D must have a similar load-carry-
ing capacity, since their shear span is without transverse
Figure 7 Effect of top longitudinal reinforcement on path of reinforcement, and yet, Table 2 indicates that beam D
compressive force, C, within shear span: Cs is the compressive
force transmitted by compression reinforcement and Cc the path has a load-carrying capacity significantly larger than that
of C in the absence of top reinforcement of beam A. Furthermore, the load-carrying capacity of
beam D is essentially equal to that of beams B and
C, for which the shear span is reinforced in compliance
with the code design provisions. The above behaviour
the beams tested are shown in Figures 6 and 10 where, indicates that transverse reinforcement placed within
for comparison purposes, the load is expressed in a form the flexure span in the region of load points can be
normalized with respect to the maximum load sustained as effective as transverse reinforcement placed within
by the beams calculated on the basis of the beam fiexural the shear span. Since the shear force within the flexure
capacity. Finally, Figure 7 indicates the effect of top span is zero, the failure of the beams cannot be asso-
longitudinal reinforcement on the path of the compres- ciated with the concept of 'shear capacity of a critical
sive force within the shear span. section'.
E n g . S t r u c t . 1987, V o l . 9, J a n u a r y 35
Shear failure o f RC beams: M. D. Kotsovos
I-igure 8 Modes of failure exhibited by beams with av/d= 2.25: from top to bottom, beams A, B, C, respectively
Figure 9 Modes of failure exhibited by beams with av/d= 3: from top to bottom, beams A, B, C, respectively
The failure mode shown in Figure _5 indicates that, of RC beams with av/d< 2 are compatible with those
as discussed in a previous section, the cause of the beam predicted by finite element analysis in a previous work. ~'
failure is associated with the fact that the diagonal crack, It is interesting to note in Table 2 that the presence
which forms at an earlier load, does not penetrate into of top longitudinal reinforcement within the shear span
the region of the load point and cause crushing of this of beams without transverse reinforcement (beam E)
region as is generally considered. 5 Instead, it by-passes causes a significant reduction of load-carrying capacity.
the region of the load point and causes failure of the The cause of such behaviour appears to be associated
compressive zone of the flexure span. Placing transverse with the shape of the path along which the compressive
reinforcement within the flexure span prevents the force is transmitted from support to support. For beams
extension of the diagonal cracks and leads to a signifi- with av/d < 2 and without compression reinforcement,
cant increase of the load-carrying capacity. the portion of this path within the shear span is linear
Similarly, placing transverse reinforcement within the (Figure 1 (a)).2
shear span also prevents the extension of the diagonal The presence of top longitudinal reinforcement
crack and, thus, has a similar effect on the load-carrying changes the shape of the path from linear to curvilinear,
capacity. Furthermore, placing transverse reinforce- since a portion of the compressive force is transmitted
ment throughout the beam span ha~¢he additional effect by the top longitudinal reinforcement (Figure 7). Such
of significantly improving ductility (Figure 6). a shape of path gives rise to tensile stresses in the ortho-
The above results described regarding transverse rein- gonal direction which lead to failure at an earlier load
forcement on the load-carrying capacity and ductility stage. Failure occurs within the shear span and, as a
Ex
"10 0.4
Softening branch
should be noted that, while these beams are also charac-
terized by a gradually descending post-peak load deflec-
tion relationship, those with transverse reinforcement
O Yes
_J only within the shear span suffered a complete and
x No
0.2
immediate loss of load-carrying capacity as soon as a
peak level was attained. This supports the argument
that placing transverse reinforcement within the shear
0 I I | I I span only may be inadequate for providing sufficient
0 5 10 15 20 25 ductility.2 Since the nominal reinforcement specified by
Deflection (mm)
current codes of practice may be inadequate to safe-
guard against the failure of the compressive zone exper-
ienced by the beams tested in this programme, it is
recommended that the reinforcement of the shear span
be extended by at least a length equal to the beam depth
1.0 d beyond this span.
In addition to the considerable improvement in duc-
0.8 tility, Figure 10 indicates that transverse reinforcement
0
throughout the beam length also resulted in a small but
E
finite increase of the load-carrying capacity of the
av/d = 3 beams. This increase appears unlikely to be due to an
0.6
enhancement of the compressive strength of concrete
caused by the confining effect of the transverse rein-
0.4 forcement. This is because the transverse reinforcement
0
_.1 spacing is significantly larger than the depth of the com-
pressive zone and it has been suggested that such spacing
cannot lead to an increase of the concrete strength. ~°
°'ii I I 1 I I
Instead, it is considered that the amount of transverse
reinforcement used merely reduced the detrimental
0 5 10 15 20 25 effect of transverse tensile stresses on the load-carrying
Deflection (mm)
capacity of the compressive zone. As shown in previous
Figure 10 Load-deflection relationships of beams B, C with
work, 3 significant tensile stresses invariably develop
avid>2 within the compressive zone of the flexure span when
the beam is subjected to load levels approaching its load-
carrying capacity.
result, in contrast to the behaviour of beams without
top longitudinal reinforcement, placing transverse rein-
forcement only within the flexure span is ineffective. Conclusions
• For avid < 2, the load-carrying capacity and deforma-
Beams with av/d > 2 tional characteristics of RC beams with transverse
Figures 8 and 9 show the effect of transverse reinforce- reinforcement within the flexure span are similar to
ment on the failure mode of beams with avid equal to those of beams with transverse reinforcement within
2.25 and 3, respectively. As expected, the beams with- the shear span.
out transverse reinforcement suffered a diagonal failure • The above behaviour is compatible with the concept
of their shear span. that the causes of shear failure are associated with
Placing transverse reinforcement only within the the stress conditions in the region of the path along
shear span delayed the occurrence of diagonal cracking which the compressive force is transmitted from sup-
in all eases. Collapse occurred due to failure of the com- port to support and not with the shear capacity of
pressive zone of the flexure span in the region of the critical sections.
load point. This mode of failure is similar to those • For a given av/d < 2, the presence of top longitudinal
observed in previous investigations of the behaviour of reinforcement appears to considerably reduce the
reinforced7'8 and prestressed 9 concrete beams. The load-carrying capacity of RC beams without trans-
occurrence within the middle span of inclined web verse reinforcement. This is considered to occur
cracks and horizontal cracks along the tension reinforce- because the presence of such reinforcement trans-
ment is a post-failure phenomenon which is not typical forms the shape of the path of compressive force into
of a bending failure. a shape that characterizes a beam with a larger avid.
Figures 8 and 9 indicate that a characteristic feature The shape of this path, therefore, appears to be the
of the above mode of failure is the absence of significant underlying cause of the dependence of the beam
flexural cracking. Such behaviour may be considered behaviour on a,./d.
• Transverse reinforcement within the shear span only 3 Kots{}v{}s, M. D. 'A iundanlcntal cxplanali{m {}1 Ihc I}uhaxiotu
of reinforced concrete beams in flexure based ,}n tl]~.t pr{}pcrtie~
does not necessarily result in adequate ductility. of c{>nerctc under multiaxial slrcss', Malt'r. ~'lt'litl., R I I , K M .
Extending this reinforcement within the flexure span 198,2, 15 {9{11,529-537
improves ductility considerably. 4 Bobrowski, J. 'Origins {}l satcty in concrete s m t c t u r c s , l'h.D.
The.~is, University of Surrey, June 1982, 276
5 Allen. A. H. 'Reinforced concrete design to ('PI IO---simply
explained'. Cement and Coner. Assoc., 1974, S6
Acknowledgements 6 Kotsovos, M. D. 'Behaviour of reinforced concrete beams with
shear span to depth ratios between I and 2.52 A ( ' I .l., l'roc.,
The author wishes to thank Messrs. A. Papamakarios 1984, V81 (3}, 279-286
and S. Pavlou who carried out the experiments and Dr 7 Leonhardt, F. and Walther, R. q ' h c Stuttgart shear tests, 196,1',
M. Pavlovic who reviewed the paper and made valuable Translation No, 111, Cement and Concr. Assoc. Library, 134
8 A S C E - A C I Task Committee 426 on Shear and Diagonal Tension
comments. o1 the Committee on Masonry and Reinforced Concrete of the
Structural Division. 'The shear strength of reinforced concrete
members', J. Struct. Div. A S C E . , 1973, 99 {ST6), 1091-1189
9 Pinto, P. E. and Chalzona, R. 'Espericnzc sul c o m p o r t a m e n t o
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1, 'Design, materials and workmanship', British Standards Insti- della Construzioni, R o m e , 1971, Publ. 29, 124
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2 Kotsovos, M. D. 'Mechanisms of shear failure', Mag. Concr. teristics of concrete confined in steal binders', Mag. ('oncr, Res..
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