Seminar: Shear design to AS 3600 and AS 5100

History of shear design

John Hilton, BE (Hons), FIEAust, CPEng
Chair Australian Standards Committee BD090 for Australian Standard AS 5100
Global Service Leader, Bridges and Civil structures, Aurecon

March 2020
History of shear design

Agenda
• Background
• Early Australian Standards
• Warehouse roof collapse
• Empirical modifiers

• The inclination angle, θ

• Modified compression field theory
History of shear design

Lime mortar
• Considered to be the oldest
structural mortar
• Naturally occurring from
limestone deposits
• Mortar: lime, sand, water
• In Egypt (pyramids at Giza)
6,000 years ago
• In India and Pakistan
(Mohenjo-Daro) 4,000 years
ago
History of shear design

Cement
• First known use of cement
was by the Ancient Greeks
in 400-550 BC
• Pozzolanic ash sourced from
the volcanic caldera on the
beautiful island of Santorini,
200 km from the mainland
• Cement: Pozzolanic ash,
lime, water
History of shear design

Cement and the Romans

• Extensive use of cement (1 part
lime to 2-3 parts pozzolana) and
concrete throughout the Roman
empire
• Pit is estimated that many
thousands of tonnes of pozzolana
used was obtained from the area of
Pozzuoli, near Naples (Mt
Vesuvius).
• Examples of tremie concrete used
for underwater applications
History of shear design

The Pantheon, 128 AD

 History of shear design

Joseph Monier
• Patents for garden pots in 1867, arch
bridges in 1873 and in 1878 for reinforced
concrete itself.
• This was the genesis for the development of
reinforced concrete
• 14m span bridge at Chazelet (still standing)
 History of shear design

Joseph Monier
• How to stop pot plants from
splitting
• No quantitative knowledge
regarding structural behaviour
or making design calculations
• Designs based on observations
and testing, together with
empirical rules such as
span/depth ratios
• Steel strengthens the concrete,
concrete provides the
containment
History of shear design

Francois Coignet
History of shear design

Working stress design

• Developed in the late 19th century
as a means to design reinforced
concrete sections.
• Based on elastic limits in steel and
concrete to carry unfactored
service loads
• Concrete in tension is assumed to
have no strength
• Triangular stress distribution in
flexure
• The method of design in Australia
until 1982
History of shear design

San Francisco earthquake, 1907

History of shear design

The Mörsch truss model (1902)

• Howe truss, pin joints v = V/bjd

• Diagonal (θ = 450) concrete struts
• Vertical steel ties
• Chord forces not relevant Av = Vsfv/jd
• Allowable stresses for concrete
and reinforcement
History of shear design

The “concrete contribution”

History of shear design

The first Australian Standard, AS CA2 1934

The concrete contribution was specified as v = V/bjd

the value calculated assuming an allowable
shear stress of 0.03 f’c (based on testing) Av = Vsfv/jd
For beams with “properly designed” web
reinforcement the maximum allowable
shear stress is 0.09 f’c
Maximum allowable tensile stress is
reinforcement is 14 000 psi (96 MPa)
No requirement given for minimum
longitudinal reinforcement
No account made for, or guidance given for
axial effects, especially axial tension
History of shear design

Warehouse roof collapse: Wilkins Air Force depot

History of shear design

Warehouse roof collapses in the US

History of shear design

Warehouse roof collapse: Robins Air force Base

History of shear design

Warehouse roof collapses: Lessons learnt 1 of 3

Following a detailed assessment of the failures, lessons learned which had
implications for the American ACI Code and other international standards were as
follows;
1. Minimum web reinforcement is required to produce a ductile failure.
2. The effect co-existing axial loads, especially tension needs to be considered.
3. There was no requirement for minimum longitudinal reinforcement is the
Standards, even though the tensile force can be predicted by the Mörsch theory.
4. The maximum allowable shear stress in the concrete was too low, especially when
considered in conjunction with loading from restrained thermal and shrinkage
effects
5. The concrete doesn’t need to crack due to applied axial tension or bending for the
ability of the concrete to carry the shear force alone to be reduced.
History of shear design

Warehouse roof collapses: Lessons learnt 2 of 3

History of shear design

Warehouse roof collapses: Lessons learnt 3 of 3

We know now that another deficiency was that the “concrete

contribution” term in the calculation of shear capacities actually
includes shear strength enhancement as a result of the following, and
not quantified;

 Variation in the slope of the inclined cracks

 Tension capacity across the inclined cracks
 Axial effect of concrete in the compression zone
 Dowel action of the longitudinal reinforcement
 Aggregate interlock along inclined cracks
 History of shear design

Size effect: AS 3600 2009

Reference (Lubell) for members with less than minimum shear reinforcement
History of shear design

Axial load effect: AS 3600 2009

Recognises that for a beam in significant axial tension, diagonal

crack widths induced by shear stresses become wider and
aggregate interlock reduces. Likewise, when significant axial
compression co-exists the propensity for diagonal cracking is
reduced and where cracking does occur the axial compression will
act to close the cracks.
History of shear design

Axial load effect: AS 3600 2009

Recognises that for a beam in significant axial tension, diagonal

crack widths induced by shear stresses become wider and
aggregate interlock reduces. Likewise, when significant axial
compression co-exists the propensity for diagonal cracking is
reduced and where cracking does occur the axial compression will
act to close the cracks.
History of shear design

Shear span to depth effect: AS 3600 2009

It is a well-known phenomenon that the shear

capacity of a beam is enhanced when the load
is applied close to the support due to the
diagonal compression created.
History of shear design

Web crushing

Shear value by crushing of the concrete will be

sudden and potentially explosive.
Therefore, it is important that the beam is
designed in such a way that steel yielding of the
transverse reinforcement occurs before concrete
crushing of the inclined concrete strut occurs.
History of shear design

The importance of the inclination angle

θ = 450 was too conservative particularly for beams with small

amounts of web reinforcement
Use made of the theory of plasticity
Practical limits needed eg shallow angle of inclination produces
a large elongation of the transverse reinforcement which in turn
widens the inclined cracks
History of shear design

The importance of the inclination angle

Standard Angle θ
Minimum Maximum

CEB-FIP Model code for concrete structures 1978 310 590

CEB-FIP Model code for concrete structures 1990 190 450
Eurocode 2 (1991) ENV 1992-1-1 220 680
AS 3600 1994 300 450
Eurocode 2 (2004) ENV 1992-1-1 220 450
German Standard (2008) DIN 1045-1 190 600
History of shear design

Shear vs bending Bending failure

• Typically ductile
• Provides advanced warning
• Well established design
• Consensus in design codes

Shear failure
• Can be sudden and brittle
• Considerable difference in
design methods
• Includes empirical parameters
History of shear design

Shear failure: what does it look like?

Concorde Overpass, Montreal 2006

 History of shear design

From paper by Bentz, Vecchio, and Collins (2006)

“…the shear strengths predicted by different current design

codes for a particular beam section can vary by factors of
more than 2. In contrast, the flexural strengths predicted by
these same codes are unlikely to vary by more than 10%.”

“The ACI approach for predicting shear strength as the

sum of a diagonal cracking load and 450 truss model
predicts the strength of these panels poorly, with an
average experimental-over-predicted shear strength ratio of
1.40 with a co-efficient of variation of 46.7%.”
History of shear design

Modified compression field theory

History of shear design

Modified compression field theory

• Based on truss analogy
• Developed in the 80’s in
Canada by observing the
response of a large number
of reinforced concrete
elements loaded in pure
shear
• A significant step toward a
more rational theory for
shear
History of shear design

Modified compression field theory

History of shear design

MCFT: Design steps

Quantify Check for

Assume/Obtain Quantify
longitudinal concrete
an angle transverse ties
reinforcement crushing

Verify minimum Verify

Detail
reinforcement anchorage of
reinforcement
ratio reinforcement
 History of shear design

MCFT: Equilibrium vs compatibility torsion

Equilibrium Torsion Compatibility Torsion

Equilibrium torsion is torsion Compatibility torsion is

required for the equilibrium of induced by the angular rotation
the structure of adjoining members
 History of shear design

MCFT: Compatibility torsion only

The theory of plasticity: A statically admissible
stress field is every field in which the
equilibrium conditions are satisfied.
AS 3600 2018
The torsional stiffness in the analysis and torsion in the member may be
disregarded providing the minimum torsion reinforcement and detailing
requirements are satisfied.

AS 5100 2017
The structure may be reanalysed with a torsional stiffness of 20% of
the uncracked stiffness and the members designed for the reduced
torsion and corresponding moment and shear providing the minimum
torsion reinforcement and detailing requirements are satisfied.
History of shear design

Importance of anchorage
History of shear design

Tension field theory

• Michael Collins and Denis Mitchell show an inspiration for the compression
field theory was the work done by Professor Herbert Wagner with tension field
theory in 1929

• Post buckling shear resistance of thin walled metal structures in the

development monocoque construction for aircraft.
History of shear design

Tension field theory

Wagner showed that if after buckling
it is assumed that the thin webs do
not resist compression, shear is
assumed to be carried by a field of
diagonal tension. This is
supplemented by compression struts.

Whereas for the original

compression field theory developed
by Mitchell and Collins, after
cracking the shear is assumed to be
carried by a field of diagonal
compression, supplemented by
tension ties.
History of shear design

AS 5100.5 – Source of revisions

• Industry feedback; design, construction, maintenance
• Developments exhibited by other Australian Standards
eg AS 3600
• Research from Australian universities, and overseas
academic institutions
• DIN 1045, 1072, 18800
• Eurocodes (EN series)
• AASHTO LRFD
• ACI 318, Concrete structures
• CAN/CSA-S6-00, Canada
• SIA, Switzerland
History of shear design

AS 5100.5 vs AS 3600
Differences are inevitable. While there is strong
similarity between the Standards, the bridge code is
generally more conservative due to;
• Longer life required
• Dynamic loading effects and response
• Bridges more likely to be subject to overload
• Bridges are essential infrastructure, needed at
times of natural disaster & emergency
• For the safety of users, bridges need to provide
warning of failure
History of shear design

Thankyou

Queries/Comments

John.Hilton@aurecongroup.com