PLASTICITY MODEL FOR PREDICTING PUNCHING SHEAR STRENGTHS OF REINFORCED CONCRETE SLABS. DISCUSSION AND CLOSURE

Discussion of an earlier paper with the aforementioned title by W. Salim and W.M. Sebastian, published in this journal (Volume 99, Number 6, November-December 2002), is given. The discussers focus on the basic issue that using a purely plastic approach, such as punching shear failure, implies the absence of any deterministic size effect. An alternative, simpler approach using an approximation for the fixed diameter of generatrix to simplify computations is also suggested. Closure from the authors on these observations and recommendations is also included.