HORIZONTAL SHEAR STRENGTH OF INDIRECTLY LOADED COMPOSITE CONCRETE BEAMS. DISCUSSION AND CLOSURE

A discussion of a paper with aforementioned title by K.H. Tan, L.W. Guan, X. Lu, and T.Y. Lim, published in this journal (Volume 96, Number 4, July-August 1999), is presented. The discussion provides clarification of certain issues raised by authors, particularly as they have referred to discusser's earlier work, pointing out dissimilarity between surface condition of authors' test specimens and American Concrete Institute (ACI) requirement of a roughened interface. The discusser maintains that statement, the ultimate horizontal shear strength of composite beams can be significantly lower than ACI Code provisions is inaccurate and must be disregarded. Discussion is followed by closure from authors.