Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Engineering - Department of Civil Engineering

Punching shear strength is a very important parameter in the design of flat slabs. One of the extremely dangerous problems regarding punching shear failure is that it is a sudden brittle type of failure that may cause several cases of deaths and injuries.This thesis presents the results of an experimental investigation for the effect of a special type of reinforcement in the form of chairs on the punching shear strength of concrete slabs. In the experimental investigation, seven slab specimens were investigated; the first one was the control specimen with no punching shear reinforcement, the rest of specimens were reinforced with various chairs steel arrangements. The specimens were studied in terms of initial cracking load, ultimate failure load, maximum deflection, maximum strain, load-deflection relationship and cracking patterns. The experimental results were compared to those estimated according to the guidelines of different international codes. The results showed that providing punching shear reinforcement in the vicinity of the column slab connection enhanced the punching behavior of flat slabs

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