Shear behaviour of concrete wide beams with spiral lateral reinforcement

ABSTRACT Wide beams are commonly used in reinforced concrete (RC) structures for architectural considerations such as facilitating the placement of services and providing adequate clear height. However, behaviour of these beams is not as efficient as normal width beams due to the small structural depth. Motivated by the lack of guidelines for wide RC beams with spiral reinforcement, this paper investigates their shear behaviour using innovative lateral reinforcement configurations. A comprehensive experimental program was conducted by testing nine beams under four-point loading. The effect of different parameters on the behaviour of such beams was investigated. These parameters included number, dimensions, and configurations of spirals. The experimental program also included testing of 18 standard cylinders spirally reinforced under compression to study the performance of confined concrete in the compression zone of wide beams. The results showed that the spiral lateral reinforcement is an efficient alternative for traditional closed stirrups for shear resistance in wide beams. Compared to regular closed stirrups, using spiral reinforcement or inclined links with regular closed stirrups can greatly improve the shear capacity and deformation. Also, reduction in the amount of lateral reinforcement can be achieved if the proposed lateral reinforcement is adopted instead of traditional stirrups. Based on the test results and the ACI 318–19 code, an equation is proposed and validated to estimate the shear strength of wide beams with regular/spiral lateral reinforcement.