Strength of fibre reinforced concrete deep beams containing openings

Abstract

An empirical formula to predict the ultimate strength of fibre reinforced concrete deep beams containing openings is proposed. Experiments that have been carried out to study the effect of the position of openings and shear span to effective depth ratio on the strength of such beams are described. The beams were simply supported and tested to failure under two point loading. The results show that the ultimate strength primarily depends upon the extent to which the opening intercepts the natural load path. The experimental failure loads are compared with those obtained by using the proposed empirical formula. © 1988.