Experimental study on high-strength concrete beams failing in shear

To better understand the response of high-strength concrete beams failing in shear with and without shear reinforcement, eighteen reinforced concrete beams were tested as a part of extensive research on shear design of reinforced high-strength concrete beams. The concrete compressive strength of the beams at the age of the tests ranged from 50 to 87 MPa. The primary design variables were the amount of shear and longitudinal reinforcement. A minimum amount of shear reinforcement related to the concrete tensile strength was also proposed. The details of the beam specimens, material properties, instrumentation and the testing procedure used are carefully described in this paper. They will be useful for researchers to compare and analyze other design approaches. The test results are presented and discussed, and the influence of each design parameter is studied separately. Furthermore, the minimum amount of web reinforcement proposed in this paper is validated using experimental data from the literature. Test results are also compared with different shear design approaches and, finally, conclusions are drawn.