The objective of this paper is to study the shear failure of plain concrete in strain localized area. An experimental study on plain concrete subjected to shear was carried out. The shape of specimen was a horizontally double-notched concrete block.…
The objective of this paper is to study the shear failure of plain concrete in strain localized area. An experimental study on plain concrete subjected to shear was carried out. The shape of specimen was a horizontally double-notched concrete block. In order to study the shear softening characteristics of plain concrete, a mechanical model for the macroscopic shear failure is applied to the experiments, focusing on the entire load-displacement relation. The method makes use of rotating smeared crack concept and truss model, combined in a simple model. The analysis employs the development of multiple diagonal cracks and macroscopic fictitious shear crack propagation. The model is found in good agreement with the experiments. The analytical results point out that the shear softening characteristics depend on the size of strain localized area.