Effect of Transverse Internal Ribs on Shear Strength Evaluation of Hollow RC Beams

Abstract

This paper is devoted to investigate experimentally and theoretically the structural behavior of reinforced concrete hollow beams which have internal transverse ribs under effect of shear. The number of the internal ribs is the major variable adopted in this research, while, the other variables are kept constant for all tested specimens. The experimental part includes poured and test of four (200x300x1200mm) beam specimens, three of these specimens were hollow with different locations of internal ribs and one of them was solid. The experimental results indicated that the shear strength are increased (33%) to (60%) for beams containing internal ribs in comparison with reference beam. Also, the change of beam state from hollow section to solid section led to increase the capacity for about (100%). In order to study more thoroughly the performance of tested beams, a nonlinear analysis using ANSYS-11 finite element program is used. The analytical results indicated that the load-deflection response, ultimate loads, and crack pattern are in good agreement with the experimental results.