Experimental study on shear resistance of reactive powder concrete beams without stirrups

Abstract

The tests results of 18 longitudinally reinforced reactive powder concrete (RPC) beams without stirrups and subjected to combined flexural and shear are presented in this paper. The main test variables were the ratio of the shear span-to-effective depth (a/d), the ratio of the longitudinal reinforcement (ρ_w), the percentage of steel fibers volume fractions (V_f) and the percentage of silica fume (SF) powder. The findings of this paper reveal that addition of steel fibers into the RPC mixture does not considerably affect the initial diagonal cracking load but it influences the ultimate load capacity. For all tested fibrous RPC beams, the ratio of the ultimate shear force to diagonal cracking force (V_u∕V_cr) have an average ratio of about 2.5. The shear design equations recommended by the (ACI 318-14) code, (CSA A23.3-04) code, (NZS 3101-06) code and (BS 8110-97) code have been modified to predict the ultimate shear strength of RPC beams without stirrups. The suggested equations gave satisfied predictions for the shear strength of the tested RPC beams with coefficients of variation (COV) ranging from 0.09049 to 0.1817.

Keywords:

• Beams
• reactive powder concrete
• shear strength
• steel fibers

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the University of Technology (www.uotechnology.edu.iq) for supporting the present work through conducting all the experimental works at the concrete and structural laboratories.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.