Shear strength of lightweight aggregate concrete beams: design to BS 8l10

Provisions for the use of structural lightweight aggregate concrete are included in British codes of practice but limitations are applied to the design values that may be used. This paper is concerned with the strength in shear, which is limited in the codes to 80% of that for normal-weight concrete of the same compressive strength. The paper reviews the published test data and describes a series of tests on beams, both with and without shear reinforcement. On the basis of the review and the tests it is concluded that the code provisions are unnecessarily conservative.