Abstract
Abstract
The brittle nature of concrete leads to a brittle shear failure, which the designers try always to avoid by making the flexural strength of the member less than the shear strength. The addition of steel fibers to concrete converts the brittle characteristics of concrete to a ductile one, such fibers are uniformly distributed and randomly oriented throughout the volume of the concrete. The steel fibers are suitable as shear reinforcement especially in thin members such as slabs and thin webs, where the use of shear reinforcement is not possible.
An incremental- iterative method which utilizes the equations of equilibrium, compatibility of deformations and materials constitutive relationships is employed to find out the complete response of beams under increasing shear loads. The method gives detailed information about the flexural and shear stresses in concrete, steel stresses, cracks initiation and propagation and failure loads. The results obtained such as failure load and failure pattern showed good agreement with some published experimental results.
