Behavior of reinforced concrete corbels

Test results of thirteen reinforced concrete corbels with shear span-to-depth ratio greater than unity are reported. The main variables studied were compressive strength of concrete, shear span-todepth ratio and parameter of vertical stirrups. The test results indicate that the shear strengths of corbels increase with an increase in compressive strength of concrete and parameter of vertical stirrups. The shear strengths of corbels also increase with a decrease in shear span-to-depth ratio. The smaller the shear span-to-depth ratio of corbel, the larger the stiffness and the shear strength of corbel are. The higher the concrete strength of corbel, the higher the stiffness and the shear strength of corbel are. The larger the parameter of vertical stirrups, the larger the stiffness and the shear strength of corbel are. The softened strut-and-tie model for determining the shear strengths of reinforced concrete corbels is modified appropriately in this paper. The shear strengths predicted by the proposed model and the approach of ACI Code are compared with available test results. The comparison shows that the proposed model can predict more accurately the shear strengths of reinforced concrete corbels than the approach of ACI Code.