Shear strengtth of prestressed concrete beams without shear reinforcement : A comparison between equations

Abstract: A new version of EN 1992-1-1, Eurocode 2 for Design of Concrete Structures, is under development and one of the most discussed topics is shear capacity for prestressed concrete beams without shear reinforcement, partly because shear failure occurs suddenly and can have catastrophic consequences. For the new version of Eurocode, there are a total of three proposed equations to replace the two equations that currently exist in EN 1992-1-1 for shear capacity of prestressed concrete beams without shear reinforcement. One of the proposed equations is intended to replace the equation intended for beam regions where bending cracks do not occur. The other two equations are proposed for beam regions where bending cracks occur. One of the proposed equations for beam regions with bending cracks, is based on critical shear crack theory and takes the normal force in consideration, while the other equation for beam regions with bending cracks is like the one found today in Eurocode, an empirical equation, where the contribution of normal force is empirical. In this thesis, all equations have been set against each other and compared with the help of nonlinear finite element analyzes and experiments which Dr. De Wilder has done in his doctoral thesis. The impact of the prestressing force on the shear force capacity of beams has also been investigated. The results show that the equations for beam regions that do not have bending cracks give identical shear force capacities. While the equation which is based on critical shear crack theory takes the shear span into consideration and captures the effect of the shear span correctly, which the other proposed equation and the one found in Eurocode today do not and are on the unsafe side for increasing shear spans. Furthermore, it turned out that the equation which is based on critical shear crack theory was rather conservative, while the equation that exists today in Eurocode gives approximately the same shear capacity as the other proposed equation. Furthermore, it was found that if the amount of longitudinal reinforcement is reduced, at the same time as the prestressing force is unchanged, an insignificant reduction in the shear capacity on prestressed concrete beams is obtained.