SHEAR STRENGTH OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS WITHOUT TRANSVERSE REINFORCEMENT

This paper presents a simplified analytical model to compute the shear strength of reinforced concrete members without stirrups. The approach uses basic principles of mechanics and a parametric study of experimental data. The main variables considered are: the compressive strength of concrete; longitudinal reinforcement ratio; and shear span-to-effective depth ratio. Using the simplified analytical model, an evaluation procedure, a parametrically derived equation, and a simplified design equation are proposed to calculate shear strength. The evaluation procedure and equations were compared with test data and found to be in good agreement. In addition, the approach is shown to be accurate, yet simpler than a number of commonly used empirical and analytical expressions. Changes to shear strength expressions in the ACI Code are proposed.