Shear Tests on Partially Restrained Slab Strips without Transverse Reinforcement under Distributed Loading

Most knowledge about shear behaviour of reinforced concrete members was gained based on experimental investigations on simply supported RC beams with concentrated loads. Also, the database to calibrate the current semi-empirical shear design approach for members without transverse reinforcement basically comprises such test data. According to current standardisation, it is only allowed to omit shear reinforcement in slabs. In contrast to regular specimens, RC slabs are usually realised as multi-span structures and loaded by distributed instead of concentrated loads. Since recent studies indicate that shear behaviour is essentially influenced by the structural system and way of loading, open questions arise. Therefore, shear tests under uniformly distributed loads were tested as part of an extensive test series at the Institute of Structural Concrete at RWTH Aachen University. The structural system was varied additionally. Besides eight tests under distributed loading, slab strips under single loads were tested to elaborate the influence of the loading condition. The essential results of the tests are presented in the following paper.