Shear Failure

in the web of the beam or “shear flexure failure”, see Figure. Due to high local tensile stresses in
the web the “inclined flexural shear cracks” propagate, see Figure, and reduces the capacity of
the different possible shear transfer mechanisms.

shear-compression-failure
When the shear transfer capacity between two neighboring portions of the beam becomes too small,
a static equilibrium cannot be found. A relative displacement between the two neighboring portions
takes place. The shear failure mechanism is characterized by shear sliding along a crack in beam
without shear reinforcement and yielding of stirrups in a beam with shear reinforcement.

Brittle Flexural failure:

In the case of a beam with huge amounts of reinforcements failure may occur by crushing of the
concrete in the compressive zone before yielding of the flexural reinforcement.
 flexure-shear-failure
Shear compression failure:
Compression failure of the web due to high principal compressive stresses in the region between
induced shear cracks. This failure mode is normally associated with high amounts of shear
reinforcement but may also be critical in sections with thin webs.

Shear flexure & shear tension

Shear Tension Failure
In the case of Prestressed elements, a very brittle shear failure, starting at middle height of the web,
may occur, without any prior flexural cracks. This failure mode is called “shear tension”. Unlike non-
Prestressed flexural elements, the initiation of a web shear crack leads to an immediate and
unstable crack propagation across the section.