Abstract
Variable depth continuous box girder bridges are widely used recently. However, the influence mechanism of the inflection point and variable depth on the shear behaviour of this type bridge has not been fully understood. In this paper, reinforced concrete (RC) beams with constant depth and variable depth were designed as constrained beams to create the inflection point. Firstly, a theoretical uncoupling theory for shear and flexural deformation of variable depth beam was derived. Then, the after cracking shear deformations and the ultimate failure loads were measured. Further, preliminary reveal of the influence mechanism of inflection point on the shear capacity was attempted. Finally, the development of after-cracking shear strain and the degradation of shear stiffness were studied. The formation of first critical diagonal cracks and yielding of stirrup are the turning points of shear stiffness. Increasing stirrup ratio provides more apparent enhancement for residual shear stiffness, which means more effective inhibition on shear deformation.
Highlights
With the continuous development of concrete bridges, large span variable depth continuous box girder bridges have been widely used in practice
Compared with ordinary supported concrete bridges, variable depth and inflection point are two special characteristics that further increases the difficulty of the complicated shear analysis of reinforced concrete (RC) beams
Literature research related to shear in RC beams mainly focused on shear capacity[3,4]
Summary
With the continuous development of concrete bridges, large span variable depth continuous box girder bridges have been widely used in practice. Compared with ordinary supported concrete bridges, variable depth and inflection point are two special characteristics that further increases the difficulty of the complicated shear analysis of RC beams. The behavior of variable depth beams with regard to shear may differ from that of constant depth members for the reason that the inclination of the main internal tension or compression chord in a tapered beam provides a vertical component potentially capable of resisting shear[1]. The existence of inflection point, in a certain extent, will decreases the capacity to resist shear[2]. Literature research related to shear in RC beams mainly focused on shear capacity[3,4]. There is still lack of such kind of experimental research in literature
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