Shear strength of reinforced and prestressed concrete deep beams. Part II: the supporting evidence

Experimental data on prestressed concrete deep beams are still very scarce. To the authors' knowledge, the experimental programme described in this paper represents the first detailed programme to consider various tendon profiles and different degrees of prestressing, A total of 34 deep beams were tested, of which 13 beams were reinforced while the other 21 beams were prestressed, The results show that both the shear strength and the serviceability performance of deep beams are significantly improved by the use of prestressing and by the use of orthogonal web reinforcement. The following factors were also investigated: deep beam deformation, ultimate behaviour, various cracking loads, modes of failures, main tension steel, various types of web reinforcements, strains in reinforcements and span-to-depth ratio. In addition to clarifying various factors affecting the behaviour of concrete deep beams, this paper provides a comprehensive supporting evidence for the author's proposed equation described in a companion paper (Part I).