Shear strengthening of reinforced concrete beams by means of vertical prestressed reinforcement

Strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) elements critical to shear with prestressed transversal reinforcement can be an efficient method to increase the shear resistance of structures, allowing the development of the full flexural capacity. However, research on the performance of this technique is very limited, and methods for designing the optimum amount of prestressed transversal reinforcement and assessing the retrofitted structure have not been produced yet. Nonlinear finite element models are an important tool regarding predicting the efficiency of these interventions. In this paper, a shear-sensitive fibre beam formulation is extended in order to account for the effects of unbonded vertical external prestressed reinforcement in the structural response of RC beams. The model is validated with experimental tests available in literature, succeeding in capturing the gain of shear strength brought by different strengthening solutions. A parametric study is performed to find the optimal quantity of transversal reinforcement that ensures flexural failure mechanism in a beam with insufficient internal shear reinforcement. The relative simplicity of the numerical model makes it suitable for engineering practice.