Numerical Evaluation of the Effects of Edge Beams Attached to the Cylindrical R/C Shell Structures

In Reinforced concrete (R/C) shell structures, the free edges of them are not usually continuous depending on the design and the supporting purposes. To strengthen these edges, edge beams are placed on such cutting edges. To obtain the sufficient strength of such shell structures, an appropriate size of edge beams must be applieed. In this paper, the numerical analysis of the R/C cylindrical shell with edge beams by using the nonlinear finite element method. In numerical analysis, the degenerate shell elements with layered approach are adopted. Both shells and beams are modeled by these elements. To represents the nonlinear behavior of R/C shell elements, combineed material and geometric nonlinearities are taken into account. From the numerical analyses, the stiffness of the edge beams plays an important role to show the deformation characteristics annd the ultimate strength of R/C shell structures. Considering the effects of edge beams on these phenomena, the minimum size of the edge beam to represent the maximum ultimate strength of cylindrical R/C shell is represented under several conditions.