Flange Contribution to the Shear Strength of RC T-Beams with Flange in Compression

As is well known, in the current design codes, the shear strength of beams is calculated based on the modified truss theory, which does not consider the effects of the flange area of T-beams. The main objective of this paper was to gain a better understanding and enhance the experimental database of the shear behavior of RC T-beams and illustrate the contribution of the flange to the shear capacity of T-beams. To accomplish this aim, a specially designed experimental program was executed, and its test results were analyzed. The main investigated variables were flange dimensions (thickness and width) and its reinforcement (longitudinal and/or vertical). Nineteen simply supported beam specimens were tested to failure under a load configuration made of two concentrated loads. Eighteen specimens had T-shaped cross-sections, while one specimen had a rectangular cross-section for comparison purposes. The items monitored during testing included the development of diagonal cracks, concrete strains, reinforcement strains, maximum loads, and deflections. Test results showed a notable increase in the shear strength of T-beams compared to rectangular beams with the same web size. For the range of variables investigated, increasing the flange thickness-to-beam depth ratio (ρt) from 0.3 to 0.5 increased the shear capacity by up to 54%. In addition, increasing the flange width-to-web width ratio (ρb) from 3 to 5 increased the shear capacity by up to 19%. It was also shown that the results of three-dimensional finite element (FE) analyses using ANSYS compared reasonably well with the test results for all specimens. Finally, based on the test and FE results, a simplified method that accounts for the contribution of the flange to shear capacity was proposed.

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