Shear Behaviour of RC Beams: A Numerical Study

A two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear finite element (FE) model created for reinforced concrete (RC) beams is presented in this paper. The FE model was verified in order to perform further parametric studies on RC beams with and without existing steel shear links. The parameters were tension reinforcement ratio, concrete compression strength, and beam size. Moreover, the accuracy of “Turkish Standards 500: Requirements for design and construction of reinforced concrete structures (TS500)” in terms of predicting the total shear force capacity of RC beams was examined. The FE model properly captured the experimental load capacity, with a mean value of 1.04. The increase in overall shear force capacity caused by the increasing tension reinforcement ratio from 1.79 to 3.33% was 18.3% for RC beams with existing steel shear links, whereas it was 10.6% for RC beams without existing steel shear links. The total shear force capacities of RC beams with and without steel shear links increased once concrete compression was increased from 30 to 70 MPa. An increasing beam size resulted in a reduction in shear stress at failure of 33.8% and 32.7% for RC beams with and without shear links, respectively. TS500 design code gave conservative results in calculating the overall shear force capacity of RC beams.