Shear response of reinforced concrete members without stirrups under bendingThis contribution presents a new model to determine the shear capacity of reinforced concrete members under bending without shear reinforcement. The main idea of the model is the consideration of principal stress in the region of crack tips of the flexural cracks due to bending. A potential band for the formation of a critical shear crack that tends to connect the tips of existing flexural cracks can be assumed. The width of this band decreases with the increasing of the bending moment and gets larger when the shear force becomes higher. This means the bending moment affects positively the shear capacity. With the new model the shear capacity and the crack pattern in previous shear tests with different structural systems and loading conditions can be explained, which is generally not possible with the existing models.
Cracks are an essential characteristic of reinforced concrete (RC) construction. Serviceability and durability, however, require a reasonable limitation of the maximum crack width. The prediction of the maximum crack width of RC, however, is not trivial and has been much debated over the past decades. This article starts with a fundamental comparison of basic procedures for determining the crack width, namely using a mechanical or calibrated model. Following, the behavior of reinforced concrete during crack formation is thoroughly discussed with a focus on the bond stress‐slip relation at the reinforcement‐concrete interface and with regard to the particular crack stage. Based on these fundamentals, a mechanical calculation model is then proposed for practical calculation of maximum crack width in RC members. The suitability of the proposed model is demonstrated by the comparison of predicted and experimentally obtained maximum crack widths for a database including 460 crack width measurements. It is shown that the current state of knowledge enables a mechanically plausible calculation of the maximum crack width. Although the formulation based on the bond law is not trivial, the calculation model can be prepared with appropriate simplifications in a practical way.
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