Numerical investigation of the shear behavior of reinforced concrete beams with low shear reinforcement under different boundary and loading conditions

The significant influence of boundary and loading conditions on the shear response of slender reinforced concrete beams without shear reinforcement has been substantiated by recent research.It would be of interest to examine whether this influence is also present in the case of beams with low shear reinforcement less than the minimum shear reinforcement ratio.This study presents a numerical investigation of the shear behavior of slender reinforced concrete beams with low shear reinforcement under various boundary and loading conditions.An experimental study from the literature is considered, comprising three beam series types: four simply supported beams subjected to a point load, three simply supported beams subjected to a distributed load, and four cantilevers subjected to a distributed load.The GID and ATENA software are utilized for 3D modeling and nonlinear finite element analysis.A novel approach to modelling distributed loads is proposed.By evaluating load-displacement curves, nominal shear stresses and shear transfer actions along the shear cracks, the influence of loading and support conditions on the shear behavior of slender reinforced concrete beams with low amounts of shear reinforcement is investigated.Due to boundary and loading conditions, normalized nominal shear stress increases up to 124%.The benefit of numerical modeling is leveraged to perform a sensitivity analysis of varying shear reinforcement locations on the shear resistance of specimens.