SHEAR STRENGTH PREDICTION OF REINFORCED CONCRETE SHALLOW BEAMS WITHOUT SHEAR REINFORCEMENTS

Abstract

This paper presents two design equations to predict the shear strength of reinforced concrete shallow beams without shear reinforcements. The proposed equations were derived from two techniques: nonlinear regression analysis and artificial neural network analysis. The analysis was carried out using 279 test results of shallow beams available in the literature with a wide range of geometrical and material properties. The proposed equations consider the influence of concrete compressive strength, flexural reinforcement, shear span-effective depth ratio, and the beam’s size. The calculations of the proposed equations are compared with those of the current codes of practice and those available in the literature, and the result as the best fitting to the results of the available test.