The theory of fracture mechanics enables to deal with the size effect problem more rationally. Some studies on the shear behavior of concrete beam exist. However, it is very difficult to find comprehensive experimental studies on the size effect of…
The theory of fracture mechanics enables to deal with the size effect problem more rationally. Some studies on the shear behavior of concrete beam exist. However, it is very difficult to find comprehensive experimental studies on the size effect of reinforced concrete beams. The purpose of the present study is to explore more realistically the size effect of reinforced concrete beam under shear loading. To this end, a series of tests have been conducted, and the major test variables are the relative depth of beam, shear reinforcement ratio, and longitudinal reinforcement ratio. The test results indicate that the size effect is never small and exhibit rather large effect. A size effect formula is derived to predict the shear resistance of reinforced concrete beam. The proposed formula shows good correlation with experimental data. '_[he present study indicates that less size effect is observed for moderately reinforced concrete beam.