DESIGN OF REINFORCED CONCRETE DEEP BEAMS

The work forms part of a comprehensive investigation into the fundamental causes of shear failure and the development of simple and rational design methods. A previous part of the work has shown that the shear capacity of reinforced concrete (rc) beams is associated with the strength of concrete in the region of the path along which the compressive force is transmitted to the supports and not, as widely considered, the region of the beam below the neutral axis. This concept is used as the basis to formulate a simple design method for deep rc beams. The method involves the modelling of a deep rc beam as a 'tied frame with inclined legs', and it is shown that it yields realistic predictions of loadcarrying capacity for both simply supported and continuous deep beams for the range of loading conditions likely to be considered in practice. (Author/TRRL)