Shear design for reinforced concrete beams is of significant technological interest. Nu- merous experimental and numerical work have been developed to predict the shear resistance of reinforced beams. In this work, we consider the fracture path as the equilibrium trajectory…
Shear design for reinforced concrete beams is of significant technological interest. Nu- merous experimental and numerical work have been developed to predict the shear resistance of reinforced beams. In this work, we consider the fracture path as the equilibrium trajectory resulted from external loads and internal forces; assuming a linear-decreasing cohesive law for concrete bulk, fully-developed fracture process zone size as a material parameter, a perfect plastic bond-slip rela- tion for the interface between steel rebar and concrete, analytical predictions for the crack path and shear resistance for beams with arbitrary geometry, longitudinal and/or shear reinforcement ratio, are derived and validated against available experimental data, the agreement is remarkable.