Experimental investigation of resistance function of RC beam considering membrane effects

Membrane actions commonly exist in reinforced concrete (RC) elements under flexural deformation, which could significantly increase the ultimate load-bearing capacity and potentially influence damage mode of RC element. Most design codes only treat membrane as a “hidden” safety factor without considering its on resistance functions failure modes. In this paper, an experimental investigation is conducted to study behaviors restrained beams. It found that compressive effect occurred at early stage fully beam, leads amplified bending capacity. Diagonal shear crack developed since designed lower than Under actions, damaged beam with still carry imposed load develop further tensile action until eventual failure. The function combined altered compared un-restrained reference failed bending. A modified theoretical proposed consider both effects diagonal damage. Comparison testing data shows model accurately describe beams actions.