Shear

Beam Shear Behaviour

 Reinforced masonry beams must be designed for shear as well as bending.

 Maximum shear forces generally occur near supports.

 Shear failure is actually a diagonal tension failure that is brittle in nature and should
be avoided.
o To better understand diagonal tension consider the basic mechanics of a beam
with no shear web reinforcing:

o Recall from Mohr's circle - an equivalent state of stress different than that
shown above is obtained by rotating the differential element 45.
o This rotated element yields principal tension and compressive stresses which
are occurring simultaneously with the previous maximum fv state of VQ / Ib.
 o In general this ft will exceed the inherent tensile strength of masonry, before fv
exceeds masonry shear strength.
 When this happens, diagonal cracks, originating at the n.a. begin to
occur and grow with increases in beam loading.

 The three general modes of shear failure in masonry beams are:

 When you have diagonal cracking:

o The propagation of the tensile cracks is not resisted by the longitudinal
flexural steel.
o Under slight increases of load, the diagonal cracks will spread into the
compression zone, reducing the compression area to an ineffective amount;
resulting in beam collapse.

 This potential for failure by diagonal tension is quantified in terms of shear stress:
o Compare fv to Fv
o fv = V / b j d (UBC '97 2107.2.17)

o for flexural members without shear reinforcement

(UBC '97 2107.2.8)
The shear steel is provided so that it:

o Crosses the diagonal cracks (and, if you will, holds the elements together - steel is loaded in
tension)

o it is usually a single bar fitted within the grouted cells of single-wythe hollow construction or
within the grouted core of 2-wythe construction.

See reinforcing details

and UBC '94 2106.3.5
for anchorage
requirements

o The reinforcement shall be located such that every 45 line is crossed, UBC '97 2107.2.17. Do
this by:
o smax = d / 2
o Extend stirrups a distance "d" beyond the point where the masonry can resist the
entire shear.
o Begin locating webs at s / 2 from face of support, but no more than d / 4.
o V used to determine s:
  If simply supported  take V at face of support
 If fixed or continuous  V may be taken at distance "d" from face of
support.

o The location of web steel, however, is constrained by the unit cells.

o Spacing should follow the modular dimensions of: 8", 16", 24", 32", 40", 48", etc.
Failure of Concrete beam in Shear

Influence of Concrete type and Coarse aggregate

characteristics on Shear
The performance of beams is analyzed based on normalized shear at the first flexure crack , the first
shear crack, and influence of type of concrete and parameters related to coarse aggregate .General
trend shows an increase in ultimate shear with maximum size of coarse aggregate from 12 mm to
19mm for SCC beams .The ultimate shear resistances of SCC beams are comparable to those of NC
beams made with same size of Coarse aggregate , though SCC have lower coarse aggregate content
than NC and had similar compressive strength Increase of aggregate size seemed to decrease the
shear load at first shear crack for SCC beams.
Influence of Shear span to depth ratio on Shear
Shear resistance of beams decrease with the increase of shear span to depth ratio

It is well established in both British and American design practice ( Evans and Kong, 1967) (ACI-ASCE
Committee 426, 1973) that the failure mode of rectangular reinforced concrete beams without shear
reinforcement is strongly dependent on the shear span/depth ratio.

(a) for a/d > 6, failure usually occurs in bending;

(b) for 6 > a/d >2.5. the development of a flexural crack into an inclined flexure-shear

crack results in diagonal tension failure,

(c) for 2.5 > a/d > 1, a diagonal crack forms independently but the beam remains stable

until shear-compression failure occurs;

(d) for a/d < 1. the behavior approaches that of deep beams

In addition to the shear-span to depth ratio. the contribution of the concrete to the shear

strength, Vc, is dependent on a number of other factors including the concrete strength (fi) the main
tension reinforcement ratio (p) and the beam size (b.d). These factors are

represented in both the ACI and BSI design formulae for Vc.

The shear strength of reinforced concrete beams may be substantially increased by the

provision of suitable shear reinforcement, usually in the form of stirrups or links, which

serve to intercept the diagonal shear crack. Thus, the external shear force, V, is resisted

partly by the concrete, Vc, and partly by the shear reinforcement, V. such that

V=Vc +Vs
Influence of Beam size on Shear

It has been shown by Kani (1967) and Taylor(1972) that larger beams are proportionally weaker in
shear than smaller beams; that is , the ultimate shear stress reduces with beam depth . It is believed
that this is because the aggregate interlock contribution to shear strength Vc, does not increase in
the same proportion as the beam size, Design shear stress values in BS8110 allow for the influence
of the effective depth ,d. The proportion of the strength that the bonded shear plates contributes is
also likely to change.

Web reinforcement contribution to Shear Strength

Stirrups provide a contribution to shear strength if crossed by a diagonal crack: therefore , the
contribution of steel shear reinforcement can be estimated on the basis of the cracking pattern ,
depending on the number of stirrups intercepted by the primary shearcrack (Tompasand Frosch
2002). It is known that the opening of the critical shear crack is not same along its length. In
particular , the opening of the shear crack has the maximum value at the initiation of the critical
crack, where the stirrups yield , and a low value at the end of the crack near the compressed zone,
where the stirrups could not reach the yield stress
Shear Transfer Action and Mechanisms

Shear transfer actions and mechanisms in concrete beams are complex and difficult to clearly
identify. Complex stress redistributions occur after cracking , and those redistributions is influenced
by many factors.

The five important shear transfer actions for beams with shear reinforcement are

1.Shear resistance in the uncracked concrete zone:

The uncracked compression zone contributes to shear resistance in a cracked concrete member. (i.e
a beam or a slab). The magnitude of that shear resistance is limited by the depth of compression
zone . Consequently , in a relatively slender beam without axial compression , the shear contribution
by the uncracked compression zone becomes relatively small due to small depth of compression
zone.

2. Interface shear transfer:

Local roughness in the crack plane provides resistance against slip and thus there is shear transfer
across shear cracks. The contribution of interface shear transfer to shear strength is a function of the
crack width and aggregate size. Thus, the magnitude decreases as the crack width increases and as
the aggregate size decreases. Consequently this component is called ‘aggregate interlock’.

3. Dowel action

When crack forms across longitudinal bars, the dowelling action of the longitudinal bars provides a
resisting shear force. The contribution of dowel action to shear resistance is a function of the
amount of concrete cover beneath the longitudinal bars and the degree to which vertical
displacements of those bars at the inclined cracks are restrained by transverse reinforcement.
Typically the dowel action is provided by reinforcement that is near the tension face of a member
without transverse reinforcement because that action is then limited by the ensile strength of
concrete.
4. Residual Tensile Stresses

In concrete tensile stresses can be transmitted directly across cracks because small pieces of
concrete bridge the crack, even when concrete is cracked and loaded in uni- axial tension, it can
transmit tensile stresses until crack width reach 0.06 to 0.16 mm. due to the presence of these
tensile stresses in the concrete, in the vicinity of the tips of inclined and flexural cracks , can also
carry shear stresses that add to the shear capacity of the concrete.

5. Shear reinforcement:

In the members with shear reinforcement, a large portion of the shear is carried by the shear
reinforcement after diagonal cracking occurs. The contribution of shear reinforcement to shear
resistance is typically modelled either with 45 – degree truss plus a concrete term, or a variable
angle term without a concrete term