Experimental Study on Shear Behavior of Reinforced Self-Compacted Concrete Tapered Beams

Abstract

There are few researches about tapered reinforced concrete elements and it shear failure mechanisms is not well understood. In the present paper, tests were carried out on six beams, simply supported under the effect of two points loading at the ends. Five beam specimens where tapered (non-prismatic shape) while, the last one has a rectangular prismatic shape. The dimensions of the tapered beams were kept constant for all tested beams. The adopted variables were the shape of the tested beams, amount of shear reinforcement and strengthening by CFRP strips. Test results show that the tapered beams without web reinforcement have a superior shear capacity for about (12%) as compared with the prismatic beam, and the strengthening by CFRP strips for tapered beams, enhance the shear capacity for about (30%). Also, the increase of load capacity for tapered beam with half-minimum, and minimum web reinforcement, according to ACI-318 Code for prismatic beam, were (20%) and (33%) respectively as compared with tapered beam without web reinforcement.

Keywords: Shear, Reinforced Concrete, Self-Compacted Concrete, Tapered Beams, ACI-318.