Predicting the shear strength of steel fiber reinforced concrete beams

This study predicts the shear strength of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) beams based on existing experimental results. A large database containing 222 shear strength tests of SFRC beams without stirrups was divided into six different groups based on their span-depth ratio (a/d >= 3 or a/d < 3), concrete compressive strength (f(c)' >= 50 or.f(c)' < 50) and steel fiber shapes (hooked, crimped and plain) and was used to develop separate equations for predicting their respective shear strength. The proposed equations were obtained by performing both linear and non-linear regression analysis on each database. A statistical analysis was then performed to compare the proposed equations to those of the previously developed equations by other researchers for predicting the shear strength of SFRC beams. Overall, it was observed that the linear regression equations developed from this research for SFRC database could accurately predict the shear strength compared to the other previously proposed models. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.