Shear behavior of reinforced HPC beams made of a low cement content without shear reinforcements

High-performance concrete (HPC) usually has higher paste and lower coarse aggregate volumes than normal concrete. The lower aggregate content of HPC can affect the shear capacity of concrete members due to the formation of smooth fractured surfaces and the subsequent development of weak interface shear transfer. Therefore, an experimental investigation was conducted to study the shear strength and cracking behavior of full-scale reinforced beams made with low-cement-content high-performance concrete (LcHPC) as well as conventional HPC. A total of fourteen flexural reinforced concrete (RC) beams without shear reinforcements were tested under a two-point load until shear failure occurred. The primary design variables included the cement content, the shear span to effective depth ratio (a/d), and the tensile steel ratio ( ${\rho}_w$ ). The results indicate that LcHPC beams show comparable behaviors in crack and ultimate shear strength as compared with conventional HPC beams. Overall, the shear strength of LcHPC beams was found to be larger than that of corresponding HPC beams, particularly for an a/d value of 1.5. In addition, the crack and ultimate shear strength increased as a/d decreased or ${\rho}_w$ increased for both LcHPC beams and HPC beams. This investigation established that LcHPC is recommendable for structural concrete applications.