An Investigation of the Strength and Deformation Characteristics of Concrete Deep Beams with Web Openings away from the Load Paths

Abstract

The effects of web openings, positioned away from the load paths, on the strength and newlinedeformation characteristics of reinforced concrete deep beams have been investigated newlinein this study numerically and experimentally. This study was triggered by a path newlinebreaking discovery by this author in an earlier research that the width in excess of half newlinethe height of a thin plain-concrete panel subjected to in-plane axial compression, newlineapplied through a pair of small bearing plates, one placed at the at top and one at the newlinebottom, neither contributes nor remains neutral towards the axial compressive strength newlineresisted by the panel, but rather impairs the same significantly. The two vertical strips, newlineon either side of the central vertical strip of width equal to half the panel height, can newlinebe termed as excessive lateral confinement whose influence on the bottle-shaped strut newlineresisting the axial compression within the central vertical strip (load path) is found to newlinebe negative on the compressive strength of the panel, and not neutral, as believed newlinebased on customary knowledge of the behavior of structural concrete. Such a panel, newlineunder the explained loading regime, can be likened, for example, to a bottle-shaped newlinestrut resisting compression along the diagonal load path of a simply supported deep newlinebeam under concentrated loading. The new revelation of the above-said structural newlineresponse of a bottle-shaped strut is sought to be further investigated in detail in real newlinelife structural members like RC deep beams so as to gainfully exploit it to create web newlineopenings in deep beams that would result in a host of benefits, both structural and newlineutilitarian. newline