Numerical evaluation of effects of shear span, stirrup spacing and angle of stirrup on reinforced concrete beam behaviour

Shear and bending strength of reinforced concrete beams depend on many parameters. It is extremely important to take the necessary precautions in terms of shear in order for the beams to reach their bending capacity. For this reason, it is necessary to determine the effective parameters especially on shear capacity in beams. However, the actual capacity calculation is quite difficult according to regulations that are very conservative in terms of design. Therefore, many experimental studies have been conducted on the shear capacity of the beams. However, this situation is not meaningful in terms of both time and cost, since many experiments will be required to interpret the beam shear behavior, which depends on many parameters. For this reason, the use of advanced software whose verification is performed according to experimental data has become widespread. In this study, a numerical study was carried out on 36 different beam models using the ABAQUS finite element program to examine the effect of the shear span/effective depth (av/d) ratio, stirrup spacing (sw) and the angle of stirrup (a). The results showed that as the av/d increase, the behavior of a shear deficient beam tends to typical bending behavior. Although the effect of stirrup angle on shear capacity is quite high, stirrup angles of 30o and 60o give very similar results. The effect of stirrup spacing is quite limited at relatively high av/d. Stirrups with 90o do not contribute to ductility in beams with high av/d.