Influence of Transverse Sectional Pre-crack on Shear Failure Behavior of RC Slender Beams Based on Experimental Loading Test

For the RC members under cyclic loading, flexural cracks commonly propagate in two opposite transverse directions at the zone under high bending moment and possibly form the cracks penetrating through the entire cross sections (precrack), which is considered as a crucial factor for flexure-shear failure of member. This paper clarified the influence of imitation pre-crack on the shear failure behavior of RC slender beams by three point bending test. Shear span depth ratio (a/d=3.14, 4.69) and location and thickness of pre-crack were set as main variables. As the important findings, it was revealed that the influence of pre-crack on the shear strength of RC slender beams is relatively small because it does not affect the formation of the critical diagonal crack and the mode of diagonal tension failure. It was also noted that the pre-crack at 2d (the section of pre-crack is 512 mm, which is twice of the effective depth d, far away from the loading plate center) leads to a reduction of shear strength with increasing pre-crack width, and the maximum reduction is 21.4%. Based on the detailed analysis of crack propagation, it was clarified that pre-crack may result in two patterns of critical diagonal crack, and in the condition that the pre-crack plane vertically intersects with the lateral splitting part of diagonal crack, the lateral splitting part becomes more severe and thereby reduces the shear strength and deformation ability.