Shear deformation model for reinforced concrete columns

Column shear failures observed during recent earthquakes and experimental data indicate that shear deformations are typically associated with the amount of transverse reinforcement, column aspect ratio, axial load, and a few other parameters. It was shown that in some columns shear displacements can be significantly large, especially after flexural yielding. In this paper, a piecewise linear model is developed to predict an envelope of the cyclic shear response including the shear displacement and corresponding strength predictions at the first shear cracking, peak strength, onset of lateral strength degradation, and loss of axial-load-carrying capacity. Part of the proposed model is developed using the analysis results from the Modified Compression Field Theory (MCFT). The results from the proposed model, which uses simplified equations, are compared with the column test data.