Shear Behavior of High Strength Self-Compacting Concrete with Lower Transverse Reinforcement Index

Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) generally has lesser coarse aggregate contents and also the maximum size of aggregates is limited as compared to Normal Vibrating Concrete (NVC) for the same class of strength. This results in reduced aggregate interlock in Self-Compacting concrete as against NVC, which affects the shear strength of slender beams and thus, SCC might have lower shear strength. In this article, an experimental program that includes six slender beams of High-Strength Self Compacting Concrete (HSSCC) with compressive strength more of than 90 MPa and with different stirrup spacing is presented. Experimental test results of shear strength of HSSCC beams are compared with high strength NVC beams for different stirrups spacing. The results showed the ultimate shear stress of HSSCC beams is lower than NVC beams and an increase in transverse reinforcement index, ρw fy, in HSSCC beams decreases this difference. The results are also compared with different code provisions. Not much work has been done on beams with lower transverse reinforcement index (ρw fy) and in the present work, ρw fy ranges between 0.276 to 0.80.