Experiments on skewed reinforced concrete slabs failing in shear

Abstract

Reinforced concrete solid slab bridges are often skewed to cross underlying objects, which increases the shear stress concentration at the obtuse corner. Limited experimental evidence on skewed slabs is available, so that both the shear capacity and failure mode in skewed slab bridges are subject to discussion. Therefore, an experimental program at Delft University of Technology investigated the capacity and failure modes in skewed slabs under concentrated loads near the edge. Results from 15 tests on five 1:2-scale slab members result in shear failures and show a decreasing capacity with increasing skew angles. The obtuse corner is found to be critical; the reinforcement layout did not influence the capacity significantly. Comparisons with calculation methods showed reasonable accuracy. A proposed method using a larger integration length around the peak shear stress obtained from linear finite element modeling may be recommended for assessment.