Shear strength (soil)

Materials science

Stirrup

Shear (geology)

Structural engineering

Geology

Soil water

Cantilever

Engineering

Soil science

Composite material

Reinforced concrete

Engineering Structures

The objectives of the present study are to discover the influences of stirrup ratio and shear-span ratio on the shear failure and size effect of reinforced concrete (RC) beams having different sizes, and to build a theoretical formula for quantitatively describing the size effect on shear failure of RC beams. A three-dimensional meso-scale simulation method for modelling the failure of RC beams is established, and it is utilized to explore the failure behavior of geometrically-similar RC beams. In addition, the influences of shear-span ratio and stirrup ratio on the size effect of shear failure was examined. Finally, a novel size effect law (SEL) for predicting the nominal shear strength of RC beams having different sizes is established and verified. The results indicate that, (1) the shear-span ratio has a great influence on the shear capacity of RC cantilever beams, but has ignorable effect on the size effect; (2) the increase of stirrup ratio increases the shear capacity of RC cantilever beams and weakens ...

Size effect in shear failure of RC beams with stirrups: Simulation and formulation