Abstract
A mechanical model was developed to predict the behavior of point-loaded RC slender beams (a/d > 2.5) without stirrups. It is commonly accepted by most researchers that a diagonal tension crack plays a predominant role in the failure mode of these beams, but the failure mechanism of these members is still debatable. In this paper, it was assumed that diagonal tension failure was triggered by the concrete cover splitting due to the dowel action at the initial location of diagonal tension cracks, which propagate from flexural cracks. When concrete cover splitting occurred, the shape of a diagonal tension crack was simultaneously developed, which can be determined from the principal tensile stress trajectory. This fictitious crack rotates onto the crack tip with load increase. During the rotation, all forces acting on the crack (i.e, dowel force of longitudinal bars, vertical component of concrete tensile force, shear force by aggregate interlock, shear force in compression zone) were calculated by considering the kinematical conditions such as crack width or sliding. These forces except for the shear force in the compression zone were uncoupled with respect to crack width and sliding by the proposed constitutive relations for friction along the crack. Uncoupling the shear forces along the crack was aimed at distinguishing each force from the total shear force and clarifying the failure mechanism of RC slender beams without stirrups. In addition, a proposed method deriving the dowel force of longitudinal bars made it possible to predict the secondary shear failure. The proposed model can be used to predict not only the entire behavior of point-loaded RC slender shear beams, but also the ultimate shear strength. The experiments used to validate the proposed model are reported in a companion paper.