Shear capacity of RC beams at elevated temperatures

Fire safety is a critical criterion for designing reinforced concrete structures. With the introduction of performance-based design, structural engineers need design tools to assess the capacity of different elements during fire exposure. This paper proposes an analytical method to predict the shear capacity of reinforced concrete beams exposed to elevated temperatures. The proposed method extends the use of existing ambient temperature methods by accounting for the effect of elevated temperatures on material properties. It involves heat transfer analysis, evaluation of the material properties at elevated temperatures, and application of the modified compression field theory to estimate the shear capacity. The method is validated using experimental results by others. A parametric study is then conducted to investigate the effects of different parameters on the shear capacity of reinforced concrete beams exposed to fire.