Shear strength of reinforced concrete T-beams

Abstract

A theory for the shear resistance of reinforced concrete T-beams is presented. The theory is an extension of the theory for slender rectangular beams described in previous works. The new theory results in a simple expression showing that the shear strength of slender T-beams is a superposition of the shear strength of T-beams without shear reinforcement and the shear strength provided by the shear reinforcement. An effective width suitable for predicting the shear strength of T-beams is used in this expression. Also, a correction factor to account for the size effect is included in this expression. This expression is a generalized one, valid for T-beams as well as for rectangular beams. The derived formula is verified by comparisons to well-grounded experimental data from the literature, which have been obtained on slender T-beams with various strengths of concrete, longitudinal steel ratios, shear reinforcement ratios, shear span-depth ratios (a/d), flange width-web width ratios (b/bw), and geometrical sizes. The shear strength of slender T-beams is found to be muchn higher than the shear strength of the rectangular beams of their web. Copyright © 2006, American Concrete Institute. All rights reserved.