Concrete beam subjected to shear and torsion: a comparison between the Brazilian Standard Code NBR 6118, ACI and AASHTO Provisions

Most of torsion studies available are relative to pure torsion, arising from the exclusive application of a torsion moment in a concrete beam. This situation, however, is only possible in laboratories. In practice, the vast majority of twisted beams are subjected to the combination of shear forces and torsion, which gives rise to a more complex state of stress to be analyzed. The purpose of this paper is to present the provisions of the ACI 318/2014 Codes, AASHTO and ABNT NBR 6118: 2014 related to shear and torsion, and compare some results with experimental data from Rahal & Collins. It is shown that if the recommended value of 45º is used for θ, the ACI 318/2014 provisions for shear-torsion interaction give similar results compared to ABNT NBR6118: 2014, but these results are very conservative. If the lower limit of 30º is used, the results obtained using both codes departs, and less consistent results are obtained. This paper concludes that using the recommended value of 36º obtained with the AASHTO provisions, some consistent and more accurate results are obtained.

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