Journal Article

Shear Test on Concrete Corbels: ACI 318-19 Formulas Evaluation

Huang, Yuan, Han, Bing

2024

Overview

The reinforced concrete corbel is widely used in assembled concrete structures as a convenient cantilever support member. In this paper, eight double-corbel specimens with the same design load capacity were obtained according to the strut-and-tie method (STM) in ACI 318-19. Corbels with different dimensional parameters were produced by varying the concrete compressive strength or shear span separately. The differences in actual bearing capacity and mechanical performance among the corbels were then compared to assess the accuracy and safety of the STM under the two variables. In addition, as the horizontal stirrups are not taken into consideration in the nominal design capacity of the STM, three non-stirrup corbel specimens were designed to investigate the effect of stirrups on the load-bearing capacity under different shear spandepth ratios. The results show that changing the concrete strength or shear span significantly affects the actual bearing capacity of the corbels, despite the design load capacity remaining constant. Increased compressive strength of the concrete or decreased shear span at the design stage results in a higher level of safety for the STM. The larger the shear span-depth ratio, the greater the strengthening effect of the stirrups on the corbels' bearing capacity. Keywords: concrete compressive strength; horizontal stirrups; reinforced concrete corbel; shear span-depth ratio; strut-and-tie method (STM).

• Publisher: American Concrete Institute
• Subject: Accuracy / Bearing capacity / Cantilever members / Compressive strength / Concrete / Concrete properties / Concrete structures / Concrete testing / Design / Load / Mechanical properties / Reinforced concrete / Shear tests / Stirrups / Strut and tie models / Supports / Testing