JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT

ISSN 1392-3730 print/ISSN 1822-3605 online

2013 Volume 19(3): 400
408
doi: 10.3846/13923730.2012.757560

CONTRIBUTION OF CONCRETE TO SHEAR STRENGTH OF RC BEAMS

FAILING IN SHEAR

Guray ARSLAN, Zekeriya POLAT

Department of Civil Engineering, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
Received 15 Jun. 2011; accepted 30 Sep. 2011

Abstract. Reinforced concrete (RC) beams with light transverse reinforcement are vulnerable to shear failure during
seismic response. In order to prevent brittle shear failures at beam plastic hinge regions of earthquake-resistant
structures, the Turkish Earthquake Code and ACI318 require the use of sufficient transverse reinforcement to resist
the total expected shear demand. These codes tend to be excessively conservative and, in some cases, the
contribution of the concrete to the shear strength is neglected. The aim of this study is to investigate the
contribution of concrete to shear strength of RC beams failing in shear experimentally. The beams were tested
under monotonically increasing reversed cyclic loading to determine the concrete contribution to shear strength. It
is observed that the concrete contribution to the shear strength at ultimate state ranges from 18% to 69% of the
ultimate strength.
Keywords: reinforced concrete; beam; degradation; shear failure; transverse reinforcement; cyclic loading.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Arslan, G.; Polat, Z. 2013. Contribution of concrete to shear
strength of RC beams failing in shear, Journal of Civil Engineering and Management 19(3): 400
408.

Introduction case that shear force due to seismic loads is greater

than the half of the total shear force.
Extensive studies have been carried out in the past two
Lee et al. (2009) proposed a method to predict
decades to investigate the shear capacity degradation
the deformability of RC joints failing in shear after
and the concrete contribution to the shear strength of
plastic hinges develop at both ends of the adjacent
reinforced concrete (RC) members, as a function of
beams. Elmenshawi et al. (2009) conducted experi-
ductility demand (Aschheim, Moehle 1992; Priestley
ments on elements constructed with different concrete
et al. 1994; Lehman et al. 1996; ATC-32 1996; Martı́n- strengths (30
175 MPa) tested under load reversals in
Pérez, Pantazopoulou 1998; Sezen, Moehle 2004), order to investigate the shear behaviour of flexural
deflection capacity (Lee, Watanabe 2003), drift ratio plastic hinges. Park et al. (2011) tested 10 RC columns
(Elwood, Moehle 2005) and rotation capacity (Arslan with varying axial force ratio and shear reinforcement
2005). The shear strength of RC frame members ratio under monotonic and reversed cyclic loading
degrades faster than their flexural strength does under and found out that the concrete contribution to shear
cyclic loading. Hence, the proportioning of members resistance in the plastic hinge region decreased with
of new RC structures and the evaluation of members the increasing axial load. Chao and Loh (2009)
of existing structures should take into account the proposed a biaxial hysteretic model to take into
reduction of shear resistance (Biskinis et al. 2004). In account the hysteretic characteristics of strength and
order to prevent shear failures at beam plastic hinge stiffness degradation, pinching and biaxial interaction
regions of earthquake-resistant structures, European and used the test data of six RC columns to validate
design codes, such as the CEB-FIP Model Code 92 the model. Zhang et al. (2011) proposed a coupled
(1991) and Eurocode 2 (2004), do not take into hysteretic model in order to simulate the shear-flexure
account the contribution of concrete in certain cases. interactive behaviour of columns and the accumulated
Similarly, the Turkish Earthquake Code (TEC 2007) material damage during loading reversals, including
and ACI 318-08 (2008) design approach for flexural pinching, strength deterioration, and stiffness soft-
members assumes that the contribution of concrete to ening, since the axial-shear-flexure interaction in
the shear strength of the section shall be omitted in columns considerably affects the strength, stiffness

Corresponding author. Guray Arslan

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

400 Copyright ª 2013 Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) Press

www.tandfonline.com/TCEM
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2013, 19(3): 400
408 401

and the hysteretic responses (Xu, Zhang 2011). the compressive strength of concrete. Eqn (3) repre-
Poljanšek et al. (2009) used a non-parametric empiri- sents the shear strength of slender beams:
cal approach, based on empirical data on RC columns  pffiffiffiffi 
that failed in flexure, to predict the energy dissipation Vn ¼ Vc þ Vs ¼ 0:2275 fc þ qw fyw bw d; (3)
capacity and the deterioration of deformation capacity
due to cumulative damage. Choi and Park (2010) where rw is the transverse reinforcement ratio (rw 
studied the degradation in the shear capacity due to Av/(bws)) and fc is in MPa.
inelastic flexural deformation and developed an analy- In seismic design, according to the TEC (2007),
tical model for predicting the degraded shear capacity shear force, Ve, is to be taken into account for beam
and deformation capacity of slender beams by using transverse reinforcement and shall be calculated using
the concept of strain-based shear strength model. Eqn (4) such that the most unfavourable result is
In this paper, the change in the contribution of obtained by considering the cases of earthquake
concrete to the shear strength of RC beams failing in acting from left to right or from right to left
shear before flexural reinforcement yields was investi- separately:
gated experimentally. The transverse reinforcement  
ratio ranges from 0.22% to 0.54%, while the shear Ve ¼ Vdy  Mpi þ Mpj =ln ; (4)
span-to-depth ratio (a/d) is equal to 2.5 in all beams.
where Mpi and Mpj are the positive or negative ultimate
The beams were tested under monotonically increas-
moment capacities considering strain hardening of
ing reversed cyclic loading. The curves of shear force-
steel; Vdy is the simple beam-shear developed at the
deflection and shear force-contribution of transverse
column face due to vertical loads; and ln the is clear span
reinforcement to shear force are plotted based on
of beam. Unless a more rigorous analysis is performed,
experimental results.
ultimate moment capacities at the beam ends may be
taken as Mpi ffi 1:4Mri and Mpj ffi 1:4Mrj , where Mri is
1. Shear strength of beams the positive or negative ultimate moment resistance
The following procedure outlines the guidelines recom- calculated on left end i of a beam and Mrj is the negative
mended by MacGregor (1973) to determine the shear or positive ultimate moment resistance calculated on
strength of RC members. The governing equation given right end j. The ACI 318-08 (2008) requires beams to be
by ACI 318-08 (2008) states that the shear strength designed to resist the shear corresponding to the
must exceed the shear demand as shown in Eqn (1): development of ultimate moment capacity, considering
strain hardening of steel, Mpr, using conventional ACI
/Vn
Vu : (1) procedures with transverse reinforcement yield stress
taken equal to 1.25 times the nominal yield stress, at the
Most of the shear design equations (ACI 318-08 both ends of the member. In ACI 318-08 (2008) and
2008; TS500 2000) provide a simple superposition of TEC (2007), within the plastic-hinge region, when the
transverse reinforcement and concrete strength. The shear due to seismic effects is equal to or greater than
ACI 318-08 (2008) design shear strength is indepen- the gravity shear, the transverse reinforcement is to be
dent of whether flexural yield has occurred prior to designed to provide Vs assuming Vc  0.
shear failure. For members, design shear strength is Figure 1 illustrates the existing models for
calculated as follows: predicting shear capacity degraded by inelastic defor-
pffiffiffiffi mation. The change of concrete shear strength, Vc,
fc Av fy d and shear capacity, Vn, with displacement ductility is
Vn ¼ Vc þ Vs ¼ bw d þ ; (2) given according to the models of Priestley et al. (1994)
6 S
and Sezen and Moehle (2004). The relationship
where Vc is the contribution of concrete to shear strength; between shear capacity and drift ratio, defined as a
Vs is the contribution of transverse reinforcement to function of transverse reinforcement ratio, plastic
shear strength based on yield; fc is the compressive shear capacity and axial force, is given by the model
strength of concrete in MPa; bw is the beam width; d is the of Elwood and Moehle (2005). According to the
effective depth; Av is the area of shear reinforcement model of Lee and Watanabe (2003), the shear
within a distance s and fy is the transverse reinforcement contribution of concrete and the effective compressive
yield strength. In the ACI 318-08 (2008), the contribution strength of concrete vfc as a function of deflection are
of vertical transverse reinforcement is derived from basic depicted. The model of Arslan (2005) assumes that the
equilibrium considerations on a 45-degree truss model contribution of transverse reinforcement is equal to
with constant transverse reinforcement spacing and an the ultimate strength of beam. As can be seen, these
effective depth (ASCE-ACI Committee 445 on Shear models predict a reduction in the contribution of
and Torsion 1998). concrete to shear strength for increasing displacement
In the TS500 (2000) equation, the contribution ductility, drift ratio, deflection and rotation, with a
of concrete to shear strength is mainly dependent on small residual strength at large ductility levels.
402 G. Arslan and Z. Polat. Contribution of concrete to shear strength of RC beams failing in shear

Fig. 1. Existing shear degradation models for predicting shear capacity

2. Experimental programme to 0.54%. The beam designation includes a combina-

tion of letters and numbers: H to indicate the series; 16
2.1. Test variables
and 22 to designate the diameter of tensile and
Figure 2 shows the arrangement of the reinforcement compression reinforcement; S to indicate the trans-
and the cross-sectional dimensions of RC beams verse reinforcement spacing; 125, 155, 250 and
(Polat et al. 2007; Arslan et al. 2008). All beams are 310 mm to designate the spacing of transverse reinfor-
150 mm wide (bw), 230 mm effective deep (d) and cements. For example, a beam of series H having a
supported with a span length of 1150 mm. The shear transverse reinforcement spacing of 125 mm with the
span-to-depth ratios (a/d) of all beams were kept diameter of tensile and compression reinforcement
constant at a value of 2.5 to ensure shear failure rather equal to 22 mm is designated as H22S125.
than bending failure. Four different transverse rein- The properties of the beams are shown in Table 1.
forcement space configurations were used, where the While computing rw(TS500) and rw(ACI318), the re-
transverse reinforcement ratios (rw) range from 0.22% quired shear strength was taken as the shear strength

Steel plate
50x150x10

230 260

150
125 a=575 575 125
Beam section
1400

Fig. 2. Geometry of H22S125 beam and reinforcement arrangement (unit: mm)

Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2013, 19(3): 400
408 403

Table 1. Properties of beams

qw qw qw qw
Beam rw (%) qw ðTS500Þ min qw ðTS500Þ qw ðACI318Þ min qw ðACI318Þ

H16S125 0.54 2.77 4.58 2.26 6.43

H16S155 0.43 2.21 3.64 1.80 5.12
H16S250 0.27 1.39 2.29 1.13 3.21
H22S125 0.54 0.93 4.58 0.87 6.43
H22S155 0.43 0.74 3.64 0.69 5.12
H22S250 0.27 0.47 2.29 0.43 3.21
H22S310 0.22 0.38 1.86 0.35 2.62

corresponding to the yielding of longitudinal reinfor- The test set-up includes the use of a hydraulic
cement. The ratios of transverse reinforcements in the jack that applies load gradually at the mid-span of
beams were determined in such a way that they are beam specimens until failure. The beams were loaded
larger than the minimum ratios defined by TS500 monotonically up to the approximately 11.0
13.5% of
(2000) and ACI 318-08 (2008), and smaller than the their estimated ultimate loads at first steps, and then
ratio computed from the shear strength corresponding continuously loaded in a series of load-controlled
to the yielding of longitudinal reinforcement. cycles. Three full cycles were performed at each load
level. Finally, the increments were reduced by about
2.2. Materials 50% of initial load increments, and the imposed loads
were increased up to the ultimate loads.
Concrete composition is the same for all the beams. A The strains in two transverse reinforcements in
concrete mix consisting of Portland cement (PC 42.5) the shear span (labelled as S1 and S2 in Fig. 6) were
and a maximum aggregate size of 22 mm in diameter measured. In order to monitor the development of
was used. A superplasticiser with retarder which meets strain in the transverse reinforcements with progres-
ASTM C494/C494M-12 (2012) requirements for Type sive loading, an electrical strain gauge was installed to
A admixture was used in the mix to achieve good the reinforcement directly. The net deflections of the
workability. The concrete mix proportions for 1 m3 of beams were recorded by linear variable displacement
concrete are given in Table 2. transducers (LVDTs). A computer-aided data acquisi-
The average tensile and compressive strengths of tion system automatically monitored load, deflections
concrete were found to be 1.55 and 25.0 MPa, and strains at pre-selected time intervals. The tests
respectively. The diameters of deformed bars used also provided information on the overall behaviour of
for reinforcing beams are 16 and 22 mm. The bars beams, including development of cracks, crack pat-
have an average yield strength of 420 MPa and a terns and failure modes.
tensile strength of 550 MPa. The transverse reinforce-
ments have a diameter of 8 mm and an average yield 3. Results and discussion
strength of 393 MPa and tensile strength of 526 MPa.
3.1. General cracking and failure behaviour of test
beams
2.3. Testing and instrumentation
Figure 4 shows crack patterns of RC beams at failure.
The test beams were placed within a testing frame The cracks were outlined with blue, red and black felt
shown schematically in Figure 3 and subjected to tip markers and labelled at each loading step. During
reversed cyclic loading. Hinged connections were early stages of loading, fine vertical flexural cracks
ensured between the specimens and the testing frame. appeared around the mid-span of all the beams, as
Both ends of the beams were free to rotate and move expected. With the increase in load, new flexural
horizontally under load. The test beams were sub-
cracks were formed away from the mid-span area.
jected to single-point loads as shown in Figure 3. With further increase in reversed cyclic load, those
flexural cracks started to propagate diagonally to-
Table 2. Mix proportions of concrete
wards the loading point, and other new diagonal
Material Quantity (kg/m3) cracks began to form at locations farther away from
the mid-span along the beam (Fig. 4). No slipping
Water/Cement CEMI 42.5R 194/310 failure of longitudinal reinforcements and transverse
0
2 mm natural sand 451
reinforcements was observed in all the beams. This can
0
5 mm crushed sand 221
be regarded as satisfying the requirements of TEC
5
12 mm crushed stone 522
12
22 mm crushed stone 655 (2007) and is enough to prevent slipping failure.
Superplasticiser 1.86 A diagonal crack is defined as a major inclined
crack, extending from the level of the flexural
404 G. Arslan and Z. Polat. Contribution of concrete to shear strength of RC beams failing in shear

Loading head of
testing machine

Test beam

Roller
Steel support block

Fig. 3. Details of testing arrangement

Fig. 4. Crack patterns of RC beams at failure

reinforcement towards the application point of the crack load (Pfl) and ultimate load (Pu) of beams
load, and the load at the growth of this first inclined having varying tensile/compression reinforcement ra-
crack is termed as the diagonal tension-cracking load tios and transverse reinforcement spaces.
(Pcr). The load at the growth of first flexural crack is
termed as the flexural crack load (Pfl). Table 3 shows 3.2. Comparison of shear force-deflection curves of
the variation of diagonal cracking load (Pcr), flexural beams

Table 3. Flexural/diagonal cracking and ultimate loads

Figure 5 shows a comparison of the shear force-
deflection curves obtained from the experiments. For
Pfl Pcr
Pfla (kN) Pcrb (kN) Pu (kN) Pu Pu
the beams having similar longitudinal reinforcement
ratios (H16 and H22 series), the shear strength and the
Beam (1) (2) (3) (1)/(3) (2)/(3) deflection capacity of the beam having less transverse
H16S125 20 60 115 0.17 0.52 reinforcement are smaller. For all the beams, mid-span
H16S155 20 60 120 0.17 0.50 deflections at each level of load, which was applied in
H16S250 30 70 118 0.25 0.59 reverse directions three times, were compared. It was
H22S125 40 80 170 0.24 0.47 observed that there is no significant difference in the
H22S155 40 60 174 0.23 0.34 mid-span deflections at different cycles, and the
H22S250 20 80 148 0.14 0.54 difference in the deflections in reverse directions at
H22S310 30 75 135 0.22 0.56 the same cycle does not exceed 10%. This may be a
a
Flexural cracks extended up to mid-height of the beam. result of the fact that the homogeneity of concrete is
b
Diagonal cracks extended up to mid-height of the beam. provided along the depth of beam.
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2013, 19(3): 400
408 405

Fig. 5. Shear force-deflection curves of beams

3.3. Contributions of transverse reinforcement and For each value of the applied load, the con-
“
concrete to shear force tribution of transverse reinforcement (Vs) to the
shear force (V) was computed by averaging
The contributions of transverse reinforcement and
results from measurements obtained at two
concrete to shear force were calculated as follows:
transverse reinforcements (S1 and S2);
“ The contribution of concrete (Vc) to the shear
“ For each value of strain, stress in the transverse
reinforcement was computed from stress
strain force was computed by subtracting the average
curve by iteration; contribution of transverse reinforcement to the
“ The contribution of transverse reinforcement to shear force from the shear force due to the
the shear force was computed by multiplying applied load.
the ratio of transverse reinforcement with the In the beams H16S155, H22S125 and H16S125,
stress in the transverse reinforcement and cross- the strains measured in the transverse reinforcement
sectional area of the beam (bwd); (S2) farther away from the applied load are greater

Fig. 6. The contribution of transverse reinforcement to shear force

406 G. Arslan and Z. Polat. Contribution of concrete to shear strength of RC beams failing in shear

H16S125 H16S155 H16S250

100 100 100
Diagonal cracking shear strength Diagonal cracking shear strength
80 80 Diagonal cracking shear strength 80
First
60 First 60 First 60
V (kN)

V (kN)
V (kN)
flexural
flexural flexural
crack
40 crack 40 crack 40

20 20 20

0 0 0
0 5 10 15 0 5 10 15 0 2 4 6 8
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)
V Vs Vc V Vs Vc V Vs Vc

H22S125 H22S250 H22S310

100 100 100
Diagonal cracking shear strength Diagonal cracking shear strength Diagonal cracking shear strength
80 80 80
First
First
60 flexural First 60
60
V (kN)

V (kN)
V (kN)

flexural
crack flexural
crack
40 crack
40 40

20 20 20

0 0 0
0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 50
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)
V Vs Vc V Vs Vc V Vs Vc

Fig. 7. Contribution of concrete and transverse reinforcement to shear force

than the ones (S1) close to the applied load. However, increasing reversed cyclic loading is primarily due to
the strains in S2 are less than the ones in S1 in the the fact that crack openings are unable to close.
beam H22S310 (Fig. 6). The measurements on the In the beams H22S125 and H22S250, while the
beam H22S155 were not taken into account since the contributions of transverse reinforcement and con-
strain gauges installed in the transverse reinforcements crete to the shear force were similar until the first
of H22S155 failed beyond 40 kN. shear crack extending up to mid-height of the beam
It was observed that yielding strain in the was observed, the contribution of transverse reinfor-
transverse reinforcement, thus yielding stress, was cement to the shear force increased with the increasing
not reached in the beams H16S125, H16S250, load after the shear cracks extending up to mid-height
H22S125 and H22S310 at the load levels close to the of the beam were observed. It can be concluded that
ultimate strength in spite of the increase of the strain the transverse reinforcement becomes more effective
in the transverse reinforcement. In the beams with the increasing load after the shear cracks extend
H22S250 and H16S155, it was observed that the up to mid-height of the beam (Fig. 7).
strain S2 reached the yielding strain at the load level Relative increases of the strains in the transverse
corresponding to the ultimate strength. The degrada- reinforcements of beams H16S125, H16S155,
tion of strength and stiffness in RC beams under H16S250, H22S125, H22S250 and H22S310 were

Table 4. Shear strength of beams

Vc Vc Vc Vc
Beam Vcr(TS500) (kN) Vcr(ACI318) (kN) Vca (kN) VcrðTS500Þ VcðACI318Þ
Vsb (kN) Vu(kN) Vcr Vu

H16S125 34.85 28.64 10.35 0.30 0.36 47.27 57.62 0.35 0.18
H16S155 34.85 28.64 21.39 0.61 0.75 38.64 60.03 0.71 0.36
H16S250 34.85 28.64 30.02 0.86 1.05 28.98 59.00 0.86 0.51
H22S125 34.85 28.64 26.57 0.76 0.93 58.31 84.87 0.66 0.31
H22S155 34.85 28.64



86.94


H22S250 34.85 28.64 45.20 1.30 1.58 28.98 74.18 1.13 0.61
H22S310 34.85 28.64 46.58 1.34 1.63 21.05 67.62 1.24 0.69
a
Contribution of concrete to shear strength.
b
Contribution of transverse reinforcement to shear strength.
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2013, 19(3): 400
408 407

observed under increasing loads after shear cracks “ The average contributions of transverse reinfor-
extending up to mid-height of beams were observed. cements and concrete to the shear force were
Table 4 presents cracking shear force according similar until the first shear crack extending up to
to TS500 (2000) andpffiffiffiACI
ffi 318-08 (2008), calculated
pffiffiffiffi as mid-height of the beam was observed. The
VcrðTS500Þ ¼ 0:2275 fc bw d and VcðACI318Þ ¼ fc bw d=6, contribution of transverse reinforcement to the
respectively, experimental cracking shear force (Vcr) shear force increased with the increasing load
and the contribution of concrete to the shear strength after the shear cracks extending up to mid-height
at ultimate state (Vu). It is observed that there exists a of the beam were observed. It can be concluded
contribution of concrete to the shear strength at that the transverse reinforcement becomes more
ultimate state even under reversed loading. It can be effective with the increasing load after the shear
stated that the contribution of concrete to the shear cracks extend up to mid-height of the beam;
strength at ultimate state ranges from 18% to 69% of “ The experiments show that there exists a
the ultimate strength. significant amount of contribution of concrete
For H16 series of beams, the contributions of to the shear strength (18
69%). However,
concrete to the shear strength of H16S125, H16S155 further experiments should be conducted with
and H16S250 are 0.30, 0.61 and 0.86 times the a wider range of transverse reinforcement ratio,
cracking shear strength defined by TS500 (2000). shear span-to-depth ratio, concrete strength
The contributions of concrete to the shear strength and various loading schemes in order to obtain
of H16S125, H16S155 and H16S250 are 0.36, 0.75 and more reliable assessments.
1.05 times the cracking shear strength defined by ACI
318-08 (2008). It can be stated that the contribution of Acknowledgements
concrete to the shear strength at ultimate state ranges The financial support from the Research Fund of Yildiz
from 35% to 86% of the experimental diagonal Technical University, Turkey (Project No. 24-05-01-02), for
cracking shear strength (Table 4). the research reported herein is gratefully acknowledged. The
authors would also like to thank the Set Italcementi Group
For H22 series of beams, the contributions of
North Marmara district office for material supply.
concrete to the shear strength of H22S125, H22S250
and H22S310 are 0.76, 1.30 and 1.34 times the
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Guray ARSLAN. Associate Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Yildiz Technical University. He
received his Ph.D. from the University of Yildiz Technical, Istanbul, Turkey. His main research interest is the
behaviour of reinforced concrete members under monotonic and cyclic actions.
Zekeriya POLAT. Professor, retired from Yildiz Technical University in 2008. His research interests include
performance-based earthquake engineering and the development of structural design standards.