Experimental Study on the Shear Strength of Reinforced Concrete Beams with Various Integrated Shear Reinforcements

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the shear performance of concrete beams with integrated shear reinforcements made of steel plates and rebar bent in an N shape (N-type rebar), and to evaluate the applicability of the current relevant design standards. For this purpose, four concrete beam specimens were manufactured. Four-point loading tests were performed with all the specimens. The experiments confirmed that both types of shear reinforcements had a shear-reinforcing effect (an about 60% increase in shear strength), but the N-type rebar did not exceed the nominal shear strength, probably because the rebar did not yield sufficiently. A sufficient number of steel-plate-type shear reinforcements yielded in the shear crack. When evaluating the shear performance of a new shear reinforcement, it is necessary to calculate the design strength by actually reflecting whether the shear reinforcements’ yields are due to the angle of the diagonal crack. Calculating the shear contribution based on the strain of the shear reinforcements and comparing this shear strength with those five design standards, the shear strength of the shear reinforcements were evaluated conservatively. It is considered that there will be no problem in structural safety even if the shear design is carried out according to the current design standards.