Arching action—flexural and shear strength enhancements in rectangular and Tee beams Available to Purchase

A combined experimental and analytical investigation into the effects of arching action on the ultimate strength of reinforced concrete rectangular and Tee beams is presented in this paper. An existing flexural method for rectangular section slab strips is first extended for Tee beams. This is then combined with a rational method for the prediction of the shear strength of beams, developed previously by the authors. The resulting integrated procedure is used to predict the enhanced ultimate flexural and shear capacities of longitudinally restrained rectangular beams and Tee beams. To validate the new procedure, a complementary programme of tests on scaled models was carried out. The results of these tests, together with those of other authors, were analysed. The proposed method is shown to be more accurate and consistent than the current British and American code procedures, which do not currently allow for strength enhancement due to arching action. The method is also shown to give better correlation with test results than the flexural-only arching method. The potential benefits of incorporating the effects of arching action in design are considerable. A more accurate means of predicting the inherent strength of continuous reinforced concrete members could create more economical new-build designs and could also be used in the assessment of existing structures.