Shear strength of reinforced concrete beams with stirrups

This study presents alternative shear strength prediction equations for reinforced concrete (RC) beams with stirrups. The shear strength is composed of the contribution of the nominal shear strength provided by stirrups and the nominal shear strength provided by concrete. For the concrete contribution, cracking shear strength values estimated by Arslan’s equations are almost same those obtained with ACI 318 simplified equation in terms of coefficient of variation (COV). However, mean values estimated by ACI 318 tend to be more conservative comparing to the mean values obtained with Arslan’s equations. Thus, for the consideration of concrete contribution to shear strength, Arslan’s equations are used. To obtain the shear strength of RC beams, shear strength provided by stirrups is added to the concrete shear strength estimated by Arslan’s equations. Results of existing 339 beam shear tests are used to investigate how accurate proposed equation estimates the shear strength of RC beams. Furthermore, ACI 318 and TS500 provisions are also compared to the aforementioned test results. It is found that proposed equations for beams with shear span to depth ratios (a/d) between 1.5 and 2.5 are also conservative with a lower COV than ACI 318 and TS500. However, when a/d ratios exceed 2.5 (both normal and high strength concrete beams), ACI 318, TS500 and proposed equations give similar COV value.