Project Title: Design and Evaluation of High-Volume Fly Ash (HVFA) Concrete Mixes Report C: Shear Behavior of HVFA Reinforced Concrete

Concrete is the most widely used man-made material on the planet. Unfortunately, producing Portland cement generates carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) at roughly a pound for pound ratio. High-volume fly ash (HVFA) concrete – concrete with at least 50% of the cement replaced with fly ash – offers a potential “green” solution. However, because it is still relatively new and has some disadvantages, there are still many questions that need to be answered. Most research to date has consisted only of the evaluation of the strength and durability of HVFA concrete mixtures, while only a limited number of studies have implemented full-scale testing of specimens constructed with HVFA concrete to determine its potential use in the industry. For this research, a laboratory testing program was developed to investigate the shear performance of reinforced concrete (RC) beams constructed with HVFA concrete. The experimental program consisted of 32 tests performed on full-scale RC beams. The principal parameters investigated were: (1) concrete type (HVFA concrete or conventional concrete (CC)), (2) amount of total cementitious material, (3) amount of shear reinforcement, and (4) amount of longitudinal (flexural) reinforcement. The full-scale test results were compared to the theoretical results using design approaches contained in several codes common to North America. The results indicate that existing design code provisions for conventional concrete are equally applicable to the design of HVFA concrete.