The fidelity with which the design rules reflects the actual behavior at shear force of the reinforced lightweight concrete elements

Abstract

The paper presents a method for calculating lightweight reinforced concrete elements in inclined sections according to the current design norms. There are also described the principles and calculus relations to check the structural resistance of elements that require shear force reinforcement, respectively vertical reinforced elements. The experimental testing was conducted at the Reinforced and Prestressed Concrete Laboratory from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Civil Engineering. Therefore, testing 16 beams of lightweight reinforced concrete have permitted the comparative study between the experimental values (V_iRd^e) and the calculated values (V_lRd^c), of the shear force. In this comparative study, we aimed to emphasize the way in which t the actual design norms, reflect the observed elements' behavior during the experimental tests.