Experimental study on the shear failure model for concrete under compression-shear loading

The influence of normal stress perpendicular to the potential shear plane was always neglected in existing researches, which may lead to a serious deviation of the shear strength of concrete members in practice designs and numerical analyses. In this study, a series of experimental studies are carried out in this paper, which serves to investigate the shear behavior of concrete under compression shear loading. Based on the test results, a three-phase shear failure model for cohesive elements are developed, which is able to take into consideration the influence of normal stress on the shear strength of concrete. To identify the accuracy and applicability of the proposed model, numerical models of a double-noted concrete plate are developed and compared with experimental results. Results show that the proposed constitutive model is able to take into consideration the influence of normal stress on the shear strength of concrete materials, and is effective and accurate for describing the complex fracture of concrete, especially the failure modes under compression shear loadings.