Shear in reinforced concrete beams with continuous internal transverse reinforcement

Abstract

Reinforced concrete elements with a high longitudinal and transverse reinforcement ratio may present conflicts on both of them, resulting in reduced labor productivity and a poor job when assembling the transversal reinforcement, reducing its effectiveness. Thus, this research presents a type of internal transverse reinforcement as an alternative to mitigate this conflict between the transverse and longitudinal bars. A total of 5 reinforced concrete wide beams were made, one of them as a reference with closed stirrups, and the other ones with internal stirrups, varying the inclination of the internal transverse reinforcement in 60° and 90°, and the number of vertical legs of the internal transverse reinforcement used. Comparing the results of the beams with internal stirrups with the reference beam, it was observed that the internal stirrups provided increases of up to 14% in shear strength when compared with the closed stirrup.