Reinforced concrete subjected to reversed cyclic shear–Experiments and constitutive model

Three reinforced concrete panels, 1600 x 1600 x 285 mm, were subjected to reversed cyclic pure shear in the University of Toronto’s Shell Element Tester. As the stress state over the panels was approximately uniform, an average stress-versus-average strain response could be measured, and from this detailed data on the stresses in the concrete and steel components could be deduced.

The test results indicate that if reinforced concrete is subjected to repeated cycles of shear stress at any level above that which causes yield in the weaker reinforcement, it will eventually fail by concrete crushing. This has direct implications for the seismic-resistant design of regions such as beam-column joints. A constitutive model for reinforced concrete subjected to general membrane loading is proposed based on the assumption that the principal direction of the concrete stress increment is coincident with the principal direction of the strain increment. It is shown to be able to reproduce the behavior of reinforced concrete panels subjected to monotonic and reversed cyclic membrane loading.