Title: Effect of Limited Tension Stiffening on Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Panels in Shear

Author(s): Xueying Wang and J. S. Kuang

Publication: Structural Journal

Volume: 116

Issue: 2

Appears on pages(s): 147-157

Keywords: iterative root-finding technique; reinforced concrete membrane element; shear; tension stiffening; tension-stiffening fixed-angle truss model

DOI: 10.14359/51711140

Date: 3/1/2019

Abstract:
The principal tensile strength of cracked concrete is not well defined in existing models for predicting the shear response of reinforced concrete (RC) membrane elements; hence, the shear strength of RC elements is generally overestimated due to the unrealistic decreasing slope of tensile stress as the crack accumulates. In this paper, the effect of limited tension-stiffening behavior of cracked RC panels under pure shear stresses is investigated by proposing an analytical model named as the tension-stiffening fixed-angle truss model (TFTM). The proposed model includes the limited tension-stiffening effect of post-cracking reinforced concrete and adopts the fixed-angle theory. In the analysis of TFTM, an iterative root-finding technique and a search method genetic algorithm are applied for solving the stress-strain relationship. The limited tension-stiffening effect on RC panels is examined with a series of tests. Predictions by the proposed model show very good agreement with experimental results, and the elapsed time for each calculation loop is reduced significantly.