Numerical shear of post-tensioned beams with inverted-U shaped reinforcements

Previous works verified that, compared to conventional stirrups reinforcements (or closed stirrups reinforcements), the inverted-U shaped reinforcements improve the performance of the flat slabs in terms of failure mode and load capacity. The primary goal of this research was to investigate the numerical advantage of the inverted-U shaped reinforcements in reinforcing post-tension beams (PTB) over the conventional one as well as comparing the results with the ACI provision. Several experiments and numerical analyses were conducted in order to increase the shear strength capacity of reinforced concrete beams using different shear reinforcement systems. Recently, the system’s ability to experimentally improve the shear capacity of bonded post-tensioned beams was explored. In this study, two types of post-tensioned beams were tested using a finite element program (ANSYS 16.0) to help investigate the influence of inverted-U shaped reinforcements on the shear behavior of bonded post-tensioned beams. The numerical results indicated that the limitation on the nominal of shear reinforcements for bonded pre-stressed concrete beams in the ACI 318-14 was too conservative. Good correlation was found between the experimental and the numerical results.