Residual Shear Capacity of Reinforced Concrete Beams after Fire Exposure

The mechanical properties of concrete and steel are seriously degraded under high temperature, so that reinforced concrete (RC) members after fire may not be able to satisfy the prescribed performance. In this study, 27 full-scale RC beams were carried out shear tests to investigate the shear behaviour after fire. A total of 20 beams were subjected to fire on three sides in accordance with ISO 834 standard fire curve, and the remaining 7 beams (which were not subjected to fire) were employed as a reference. The influences of fire time, stirrup ratio, shear span ratio, longitudinal reinforcement ratio, and preloading (40% loading level) were considered. The experimental results indicated that the shear failure mode of the RC specimens after fire exposure was similar to that of the reference specimens. Both the residual shear load bearing capacity and stiffness of the RC beams decreased after being subjected to fire. The loss of shear bearing capacity increased with the heating time. In addition, the ultimate load bearing capacity of specimens with stirrups subjected to the same fire exposure time decreased with an increasing shear span ratio.