The analysis of diagonal crack propagation in concrete beams

Abstract This paper deals with flexural concrete members reinforced longitudinally but without transverse reinforcement. The conducted experimental investigations have shown that beams without web reinforcement may fail without attaining their full flexural capacity and then shear governs their failure. In the paper, there are presented recent results of the author’s own experiments, which aimed at disclosing some aspects of the propagation of cracks in longitudinally reinforced concrete beams without stirrups. The experimental program has been designed to investigate the influence of the shear span-to-depth ratio on diagonal crack propagation and load carrying capacity of tested beams. The obtained test results were compared with numerical results made on the basis of Finite Element Method. In the performed numerical simulation the same longitudinally reinforced concrete beams as in the test were considered. During the numerical analysis, the special attention was paid on a tensile stress distribution and on changes of diagonal crack propagation in dependence of the shear span-to-depth ratio in calculated beams.