Reinforced Concrete(RC) beams have two sets of steel reinforcement, namely:

Long straight bars

( Longitudinal Bars) placed along its length & Closed loop of small dia bars( Stirrups) at regular
intervals along its length.
The two types of failures occur mainly in beam are:
1. Flexural(Bending ) failure
2. Shear failure

The beam sags under increase loading which results in flexural failure. Therefore, Longitudinal bars
are provided to resist tension due to flexure.

A Shear crack may develop which is inclined at 45 to the horizontal and it develops at mid-depth
near the support grows towards the top and bottom. Shear failure is brittle and, therefore must be
avoided.
So Stirrups are provided to resist such shearing action and also prevent the longitudinal bars from
bending outward. 1

1 https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-main-purpose-of-using-stirrups-duringconstruction

What is Stirrup ?
A reinforcement used to resist shear and diagonal tension stresses in a concrete structural member.
Or
The term stirrups is usually applied to lateral reinforcement in flexural members and the term ties to
lateral reinforcement in vertical compression members.

In uniaxial compression test of concrete, upon reaching the ultimate load failure of
concrete occurs where major cracks line up in the vertical direction and the concrete
cube would be split up. The development of vertical cracks involves the expansion of
concrete in lateral directions. In case the concrete is confined in lateral directions, it was
observed that the formation of vertical cracks would be hindered as indicated in past
experiments. As a result, the concrete strength is increased with also a rise in failure
strain.
The above theory is often used in the design of bridge columns. Steel stirrups are
installed at around the vertical main reinforcement. Other than the function of shear

reinforcement, it helps to avoid the lateral deformation of interior concrete core so that
the strength of concrete column is increased.
Also , Open stirrups are provided principally to resist shear forces in concrete beams
and they are applied in locations in which the effect of torsion is insignificant. U-shaped
stirrups are placed in the tension side of concrete beams in which shear cracks would
occur. However, when concrete beams are designed to resist a substantial amount of
torsion, closed stirrups should be used instead.
Concrete beams vary in depth. The deeper the beam, the more shear capacity. When the
depth is not adequate, steel stirrups must be added to increase the shear capacity of the
beam. These stirrups are usually one piece of steel that is bent into a rectangular shape.
Often small diameter steel is used, such as #3 and #4 rebar. The stirrup typically wraps
around the bottom and top bars of the beams.
Too often the stirrup is not prefabricated and the installer tries make the stirrup in the
field, after the horizontal bars are already in place. This is usually obvious, because the
stirrup is constructed from two pieces with inadequate lap splice. It is much easier and
efficient to install a stirrup at the same time the horizontal reinforcement is being
installed. 2

Figure 1 shows the Section of a concrete beam with a closed stirrup.

2 https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-main-purpose-of-using-stirrups-duringconstruction

Stirrups are provided to hold the main reinforcement bars (rebars) together in an RCC structure.
Stirrups are placed at proper intervals to beams and columns to prevent them from buckling. Also,
they protect RCC structures from collapsing during seismic activities (earthquakes).
Generally in India, stirrups are constructed manually at the site itself and thus they do not comply
with the prescribed standards of the Indian Standard codes.
However, the expected strength of the structure is achieved only when the stirrups are of standard
quality.3

3 https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-main-purpose-of-using-stirrups-duringconstruction