Shear Behaviour of RC Beams: A Numerical Study

Abstract

A two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear finite element (FE) model developed for reinforced
concrete (RC) beams is presented in this paper. The FE model was validated in order to
perform further parametric studies on RC beams with and without existing steel shear
links. The parameters were tension reinforcement ratio, concrete compression strength,
and beam size. Moreover, the accuracy of “Turkish Standards 500: Requirements for
design and construction of reinforced concrete structures (TS500)” in terms of predicting
the total shear force capacity of RC beams was examined. The FE model properly
captured the experimental load capacity, with a mean value of 1.04. The increase in
overall shear force capacity caused by the increasing tension reinforcement ratio from
1.79 to 3.33% was 18.3% for RC beams with existing steel shear links, whereas it was
10.6% for RC beams without existing steel shear links. The total shear force capacities
of RC beams with and without steel shear links increased once concrete compression
was increased from 30 to 70 MPa. An increasing beam size resulted in a reduction in
shear stress at failure of 33.8% and 32.7% for RC beams with and without shear links,
respectively. TS500 design code gave conservative results in calculating the overall
shear force capacity of RC beams.