EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF STRUT-AND-TIE MODEL APPLIED TO DEEP BEAM WITH OPENING. DISCUSSION AND CLOSURE

A discussion of a paper with the aforementioned title by B.S. Maxwell and J.E. Breen, published in this journal (Volume 97, Number 1, January-February 2000), is presented. The discusser claims that the authors tend to overestimate the margin between the analysis and the test results. Thus, the discussion examines the difference between test result and predicted strength and the difference between the first and second tests. It concludes that the beam with the mixed reinforcement systems can hold the same experimental failure load as the systems do separately if one could perfectly halve the reinforcement. Larger stiffness and strength in the test are due to the fact that far more reinforcement was applied than required. Discussion is followed by closure from the authors.