Shear Strength of Haunched Concrete Beams without Transverse Reinforcement

The shear capacity of concrete members without transverse reinforcement is still under debate. Within this paper one aspect, the favourable contribution of inclined tension and compression chords (V(td) and V(ccd)) of members with variable depth, like haunched beams, will be discussed in detail. A series of 18 tests on 9 different specimens was performed to examine the real shear capacity of haunched beams without shear reinforcement The evaluation of the test results revealed, that none of the available design methods can describe the shear behaviour of haunched beams. The vertical component of the inclined compression chord V(ccd) leads in some cases to unsafe values.