A Study of Shear Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Beam-Column Joints

The need for adequate joint shear capacity in reinforced concrete frame structures has been recognized by many design and research engineers. Shear design approaches to beam-column joints have been based primarily on beam shear mechanisms or truss mechanisms. A compression strut mechanism is presented in this report to evaluate shear strength according to observations from laboratory tests and in the field. The strength of the inclined strut is a function of the concrete strength, column axial load, joint geometry, transverse reinforcement, lateral beams, and cyclic loading. The simple equations established in this report represent quite accurately the observed results from 164 test specimens from the U.S., Japan, New Zealand, Canada, U.S.S.R., and China. Design recommendations are presented for joint shear strength and design examples are presented using the proposed design method.