Title:
Cautionary Note on Shear Capitals
Author(s):
Sami Megally and Amin Ghali
Publication:
Concrete International
Volume:
24
Issue:
3
Appears on pages(s):
75-82
Keywords:
DOI:
Date:
3/1/2002
Abstract:
Design of slab-column connections for punching shear can be the factor that governs the thickness of a slab. To achieve an economical design, shear capitals or drop panels are used to increase the punching shear strength of slab-column connections. This article presents experimental results of interior slab-column connection specimens. These include a control slab, and similar slabs that augment the shear resistance by: a shear capital, a drop panels, conventional stirrups and stud shear reinforcement. We outline some of the requirements of ACI 318-99 code and discuss these with respect to our experimental results. Nonlinear finite element analyses supplements the experimental work to study the behavior of the connections while transferring shear forces and unbalanced moments. Results of the analyses and experiments show that with shear capitals, the failure is brittle and, when the connections are subjected to relatively high moment transfer, the indiscriminate use of ACI 318-99 can be unsafe.