Shear strength of FRP reinforced deep beams without web reinforcement

Deep beams are common elements in concrete structures such as bridges, water tanks and parking garages, which are usually susceptible to harsh environmental conditions. To mitigate corrosion induced damage in those structures, steel reinforcement is being increasingly replaced by Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRPs). Yet Eurocode doesn't provide any guidance regarding the design of FRP reinforced concrete structures in general and deep beams in particular. This study proposes a Eurocode based Strut and Tie Model (STM) to assess the shear strength of FRP reinforced deep beams without web reinforcement. The proposed STM as well as those adopted by other codes were evaluated using a data base of 52 deep beams reinforced with different types of FRPs. The proposed STM has proven to be not only accurate but also conservative with a mean predicted to experimental value of 0.96 and a standard deviation of 0.13. While the STMs adopted by other codes have either overestimated or underestimated the shear strength.