Impact of Distributed Loading and Intermediate Supports on Flexural Shear Behavior of Slab Segments Without Shear Reinforcement

Abstract

Shear behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) structures has been of particular interest in research for more than 100 years. Although many experimental campaigns have already been conducted, most of the tested specimens were simply supported, single span beams with concentrated loads. Thus, they are highly overrepresented in databases used for calibration of shear design approaches. As actual structural members without shear reinforcement like RC slabs are usually multi-span systems and subjected to distributed loading, the beneficial effects resulting from other support and loading conditions are neglected in most current codes. To enhance the database of existing one-way flexural shear tests, an experimental campaign with two test series of large-scale tests on slab segments (b = 30 cm, d ≈ 24 cm) is conducted at the Institute of Structural Concrete of RWTH Aachen University, Germany. In this paper, part of the first test series on slab segments with distributed loading is presented. The focus of the investigation is on the influence of different support conditions (simply supported, full clamping, partial clamping) on shear capacity.