Punching shear design of RC flat slabs supported on wall corners

Abstract

AbstractReinforced concrete buildings are typically braced with shear walls positioned around lift shafts and stairs. Vertical transfer of load from slab to walls leads to a concentration of shear stress in the slab at wall ends and corners, which needs to be considered in punching shear design. This issue is not addressed in EN 1992 (2004) and only partially addressed in fib Model Code 2010 leaving engineers to resort to their own judgment. Consequently, consideration of punching shear at wall corners can be overlooked entirely or not properly addressed through lack of knowledge. The paper addresses this issue by proposing a method for calculating the design shear stress at wall corners for use in conjunction with the Critical Shear Crack Theory. The method is initially validated against test results for slabs supported on elongated columns as well as numerical simulations. Subsequently, the method is extended to the punching design of a slab supported by a wall corner. The proposed analysis of the slab‐wall corner junction is validated against the predictions of nonlinear finite element analysis (NLFEA) employing 3‐D solid elements as well as the joint‐shell punching model (JSPM) previously developed by the authors.