A general shear strength method for reinforced concrete beams

Two different formulas of shear strength for reinforced concrete beam are provided by Code for Design of Concrete Structures owning to lack of a rational mechanism model. In certain conditions, these two expressions are discontinuity, for these are provided merely based on experiment results. To investigate a general shear strength method for reinforced concrete beams, a total of 12 simply supported reinforced concrete T-beams with high stirrup have been made. Experimental results indicated that the uniform load lying between support and the top of critical diagonal cracking couldn´t be neglected. Taking shear strength apart from support 1.5 h₀ as the ultimate shear strength of beam, then the shear strength of reinforced concrete beam with high stirrup can be calculated by a general method. The comparisons between predictions and experiment results have been conducted, which shown that the proposed general shear strength method for reinforced concrete beams agreed with experiment results well.