HBRC Journal (2017) xxx, xxx–xxx

Housing and Building National Research Center

HBRC Journal

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FULL LENGTH ARTICLE

Enhancement of punching shear strength of flat

slabs using shear-band reinforcement
Nasr Z. Hassan *, Mostafa A. Osman, Awad M. El-Hashimy, Heba K. Tantawy

Civil Eng. Dept., Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt

Received 23 September 2016; accepted 26 November 2017

KEYWORDS Abstract Flat-slab system is widely used nowadays. Major and critical problem of this system is its
Flat slab; sudden brittle failure is called punching shear failure. To overcome the punching failure problem,
Shear band; there are many ways to increase the punching shear strength of concrete slabs, increasing slab thick-
Punching shear; ness in the area adjacent to the column, increasing column thickness which is against the architec-
Failure load tural desire, and finally providing slab with shear reinforcement. Shear reinforcement is more
advanced from both the structural and economical point of view.
An experimental program includes seven full scale square flat slab interior column specimens
tested under gravity loads. All slabs have same dimensions of 1700 mm
1700 mm with thickness
160 mm and reinforcement ratio of 1.2%. Column was square of 200 mm length and 250 mm
height. Elongated steel strips of 25 mm width and 1.5 mm thickness undulated into the slab in dif-
ferent ways to investigate punching shear resistance.
The program is divided into five groups. First group investigates the effect of installing the shear-
band reinforcement (hanged up on top mesh, knit the top and bottom mesh together). The second
group investigates the effect of inclination of shear reinforcement (shear band with vertical leg, with
bended leg 45°). The third group investigates the effect of concentrating the shear reinforcement by
increasing the quantity around the column. The fourth group investigates effect of radial distribu-
tion of shear-band system around the column. Finally, the fifth group investigates the effect of box
distribution of shear-band system around the column.
Ó 2017 Housing and Building National Research Center. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is
an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
nd/4.0/).

Introduction

There are many methods of enhancing punching shear resis-

tance of flat slabs by providing shear reinforcement [1–3]
* Corresponding author. which is placed in the slab around the column. The importance
E-mail addresses: nzenhom@yahoo.com, nzenhom@gmail.com
of shear reinforcement that can easily be installed will be
(N.Z. Hassan). emphasized. Shear-band system differs from all other existing
Peer review under responsibility of Housing and Building National systems [4,5] It is made of steel strips of high ductility. The
Research Center. strip can be bent to variety shape which is undulated into
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hbrcj.2017.11.003
1687-4048 Ó 2017 Housing and Building National Research Center. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Please cite this article in press as: N.Z. Hassan et al., Enhancement of punching shear strength of flat slabs using shear-band reinforcement, HBRC Journal (2017),
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hbrcj.2017.11.003
2 N.Z. Hassan et al.

the slab from top surface after all flexural reinforcement is
placed with minimum loss of cover. The advantages of using
shear-band system can be concluded in the following [6]:
– Prevents brittle punching shear failure and greatly improves
the ductility of flat slabs.
– Increases the punching shear capacity [6] of flat slabs with-
out increasing the slab flexural capacity.
– Easily fabricated, light weight, simple and efficient place-
ment of reinforcement in addition to it is easy to store
and transport.
Experimental program
The experimental program of this study includes seven full
scale square flat slab interior column connections specimens
tested under gravity loads. All slabs have same dimensions
of 1700 mm
1700 mm with thickness 160 mm and reinforce-
ment ratio 1.2% (Fig. 2). Elongated steel strips [2] (Fig. 1) of
40 mm width and 1.5 mm thickness are undulated into the slab
in different ways to investigate punching shear resistance. No
holes induced in the band strips to achieve maximum capacity
of punching shear strength, while it does not achieve gave
bond with concrete. Table 1 indicates details of specimens of
the experimental program. The program divided into five
groups: First group investigates the effect of install the
shear-band reinforcement (hanged up on top mesh, knit the
top and bottom mesh together), The second group investigates
the effect of inclination of shear reinforcement (shear band
with vertical leg, with bended leg 45°). The third group inves-
tigates the effect of concentrate the shear reinforcement by
increasing the quantity around the column. The fourth group
investigates the effect of radial distribution of shear-band sys-
tem around the column. Finally, the fifth group investigates
the effect of box distribution of shear-band system around
the column (Table 2). Fig. 2 indicates details of specimen with
shear band of orthogonal distribution. Fig. 3 indicates details
of specimen with shear band of or radial distribution, while
Fig. 4 represents of specimen with shear band of box
distribution.
Material characteristics
The materials used in fabricating the test specimens mixtures
were local available materials and the process of manufactur-
ing was closely similar to the common way of the concrete
manufacture in Egypt The concrete mix used in the tested

Fig. 1 Stages of shear-bands manufacture for specimens.

t = 1.5 mm

Fig. 2 Details of tested specimens (S2) orthogonal distribution.

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Enhancement of punching shear strength of flat slabs using shear-band reinforcement 3

Table 1 Test program and specimen details.

Symbol Shear band no Inclination degree Layout distribution Installation method
S1 – – – Control Specimen
S2 8 90 Orthogonal Knit Tension and Compression Mesh
S3 8 90 Orthogonal Suspend on Tension Mesh Only
S4 16 90 Radial Placed Bet. Tens. and Comp. Mesh
S5 8 45 Orthogonal Suspend on Tension Mesh Only
S6 12 90 Box shape Suspend on Tension Mesh Only
S7 16 90 Orthogonal Suspend on Tension Mesh Only

Table 2 Test specimen groups.

Group no Factor to be investigated Containing specimens
Control specimen Variable specimen (1) Variable specimen (2)
(1) Effect of shear band installation method S1 S2 S3
(2) Effect of shear band inclination S1 S3 S5
(3) Effect of increasing shear band quantity S1 S3 S7
(4) Effect of radial distribution of shear band S1 S4 –
(5) Effect of box distribution of shear band S1 S5 –

beams is consisted of ordinary portland cement, sand, crushed
dolomite, and water with ratios of 1:1.80:3.80:0.50 by weight
respectively. All used materials are matches with ECP 203 lim-
its. The characteristic strength of concrete assigned by testing
standard cubes of dimensions 150 mm length after 28 days of
casting. The average grade was 36 MPa. Steel band strips of
25 mm width, and 1.5 mm thickness are used. The yield stress
of the shear bans strips and main reinforcement is 360 MPa.
I-sections was used as a base to support a beam specimen.
The load was applied vertically using a hydraulic jack with
maximum capacity 1000 kN in centric of the column of slab.
A system of rigid steel I beams used to transmit the applied
single concentrated load coming from load cell directly to
the column using rigid steel plate Fig. 5.
Measurements

Test setup To record vertical deflection of specimens, two dial gauges

The tests were carried out in the reinforced concrete laboratory
of the Faculty of Engineering, El-Mataria, Helwan University.
A very rigid steel frame consisting of horizontal and vertical
were used. One located along the center line of the specimen
and fixed to calculate the deflection at column face and the
other at distance of 1/4 the length of distance between column
face and slab edge. Applied load was measured incrementally
during loading till failure.

Fig. 3 Radial distribution layout of tested specimen (S4). Fig. 4 Box distribution layout of tested specimen (S6).

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4 N.Z. Hassan et al.
Fig. 5 Test setup and loading system.
Before casting the slabs, electric resistance gauge (5 mm
length, 120 ohms resistance with gauge factor 2.10) were
mounted and glued to the reinforcement using epoxy. Installa-
tion of strain gauges at both flexural and shear reinforcement
shown in Fig. 6. The steel strain was measured and recorded
using a digital strain meter (TC-31K) device connected to the
strain gauges by wires and the reading were taken at each
increment of loading.
Fig. 6
Top View
Fig. 7
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Crack patterns
The initial crack development in all seven specimens followed
almost a similar pattern. The first crack opened up on the ten-
sion surface in form of flexural Micro cracks starts parallel to
steel mesh near the column at about 100 kN, As the applied
load increased the cracks propagated from middle to out-
wards. With increasing loads, more cracks developed that
advanced radials along the four axes of symmetry of the slab
from column faces towards the slab edges. Cracks parallel to
X and Y axes opened up at load less than 200 kN, while cracks
parallel to the diagonal axes opened up at a load greater than
200 kN. By the time when the applied load reached 300 kN,
only a few new diagonal cracks developed. After that, with
increasing load, the number and width of these cracks close
to the column increased substantially.
Fig. 7 indicates the recorded crack pattern from bottom
and top view of slab specimen S2.
Test results
Load deflection relationship
The load deflection curves for all specimens have almost the
same profile. Fig. 8 indicates load-Deflection curve of group
Stain gauge installation.
Bottom View
Crack pattern for specimen S2.
Enhancement of punching shear strength of flat slabs using shear-band reinforcement 5

600 Stiffness, measured ductility and absorbed energy

500
The stiffness degradation are calculated as the difference
400 S1 between stiffness at plastic stage and initial stiffness divided
Load (kN)

S2 by the initial stiffness, Ductility measured as 0.7 the value of

300 S3 deflection at ultimate. The absorbed energy is the area under
the curve of load deflection. Each of stiffness degradation, duc-
200 tility and energy absorption are calculated for each slab spec-
imen and listed in Table 4 for all specimens.
100
Group 1

0 Comparison between test results and codes estimation [6–11]

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Deflection (mm) Even today, almost codes take into consideration the effect of
main steel reinforcement and shear reinforcements in the cal-
Fig. 8 Load deflection curve of group 1.
culating of punching shear capacity, except Egyptian code
[7]. Table 5, indicates the considered and unconsidered param-
1, where the first part of the curves are steep, and after cracks, eters (C) and (N) in the different codes.
most of profiles started to be more curved till the failure Vexp
VCode
is the ratio between failure punching shear force, which
occurred. Table 3 indicates the cracking and ultimate loads was obtained from the experimental tests and the nominal
and the deflections at these loads for all specimens.

Table 3 Test results of loaded specimens.

Specimen ID Cracking stage Failure stage Crack/Ultimate (%) Enhancement ratio (%)
ðPf ÞSpecimen
Pcr (KN) Dcr (mm) Pf (KN) Df (mm) Load (%) Deflection (%) ðPf ÞControl S1

S1 92 4.76 378 20.33 24.34 23.41 100%

S2 95 7.77 585 35.5 14.53 21.19 155%
S3 80 4.68 475 28.15 16.84 16.62 126%
S4 80 4.13 436 24.4 18.35 16.93 115%
S5 90 6.11 440 25.24 20.45 24.21 116%
S6 130 5 505 24.96 25.74 20.03 134%
S7 75 4.02 500 29.29 15.00 13.72 132%

Table 4 Stiffness degradation, ductility and energy absorption.

Specimen ID Stiffness Measured ductility 0.7 Du (mm) (%) Energy absorption (KN mm)
Ki Ku Ku/Ki
KN/mm KN/mm Stiffness degradation
S1 19.33 18.56 0.96 14.23 4278.00
S2 12.23 7.18 0.59 25.52 10623.00
S3 17.09 14.00 0.82 19.71 7069.40
S4 19.37 17.55 0.91 17.37 5220
S5 14.73 13.30 0.90 17.67 5365.00
S6 26.00 23.01 0.89 18.17 8307.00
S7 18.66 12.95 0.69 20.50 7984.60

Table 5 Comparison between different codes parameters.

Code/Parameter ACI ECCS CSA Euro Code 2 BS-8110 CEB-FIB
Concrete strength C C C C C C
Main flexural reinforcements N N N C C C
Reinforcements concentration N N N C C C
Punching shear reinforcements C N C C C C
Column aspect ratio C C C C N N
Perimeter to depth ratio C N C C N C
Location of critical section d/2 d/2 d/2 2d 1.5d 2d
Angle between shear reinforcement and main steel N N N C C C

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6 N.Z. Hassan et al.

Table 6 Experimental results compared with ACI [6], CSA [8] and BS-8110 code [10].
Specimen ID Vexp Vexp
VCode Limited VCode Unlimited
ACI CSA BS-8110 ACI CSA BS-8110
S1 1.13 0.98 1.25 – – –
S2 1.15 1.05 – 1.09 1.04 1.11
S3 0.94 0.852 – 0.89 0.845 0.90
S4 0.93 0.84 – 0.49 0.475 0.59
S5 0.94 0.85 – 0.84 0.803 0.99
S6 1.07 0.98 – 0.31 0.305 0.53
S7 0.99 0.897 – 0.55 0.537 0.67

values that were calculated by the code equations [6,8,9] after
omitting the material safety factor, Noteworthy that used
codes limited the nominal shear strength of concrete and steel
individually and for shear reinforced section also. Two com-
parisons were taken into consideration for the limited value
Vexp
and for actual unlimited calculated value. For ratios VCode , lim-
ited is greater than unity, the code becomes conservative. For a
ratio approximately equal to unity, the code is in agreement
with the test results. However, for ratios less than unity, the
code becomes non-conservative. The ratio between
   
Vexp Vexp
VCode
Limited and VCode Unlimited for ACI 318-05, CSA
and BS-8110 codes are presented in Table 6 [6,8,10].
Conclusions
Through the number of specimens and variables taken into
consideration in the present study, the obtained experimental
results and the conducted comparisons, the main conclusions
can be summarized as follows:
1. Control slab which have left without shear reinforce-
ment failed abruptly in a brittle manner. However the
columns did not penetrate the slab completely, whilst
specimens which are provided with shear bands failed
eventually in typical punching shear failure after reach-
ing the maximum flexural load with less brittle manner
outside the shear reinforcement zone. The failure reflects
the huge potential of strip reinforcement in preventing
failure in the shear reinforcement zone. Furthermore,
indicating that the slab reached its most of full flexure
potential before failure is supported by strain readings
(from high elongation strain gauges) on the flexure rein-
forcement is excess of 2000 le.
2. Shear bands distributed over the critical punching shear
zone provide a very good economic solution regarding
increasing the punching shear capacity, ductility and
energy absorption. Their efficiency depends on their
reinforcement installation method with flexural rein-
forcement, layout of distribution, concentration and
inclination with slab plane.
3. Load capacity is directly proportional with increasing in
measure of ductility as an indication for ductility
enhancement. Also crack propagation area is propor-
tional with ductility i.e. the higher measure of ductility
the larger propagated area of cracks appears over all
specimens outside the shear reinforcement zone. Load
capacity enhancement range was between (15–55%),
while improvement in measure of ductility range was
between (22–79%).
4. It was observed that the failure capacity load increases
obviously when shear bands are installed in woven
way with the flexure steel mats at specimen S2 than when
hanging on tension flexure mat only at Specimen S3. The
knitting method provides additional anchorage to rein-
forcement with the compression zone. All characteristics
are improved strongly, load capacity increased by 55%,
energy absorption increased by 148%, ductility
increased by 79% while the stiffness degradation
decreased by 38.5%, S2 is considered the most improved
specimen of all specimens absolutely.
5. A slight increase in the failure load capacity of specimen
which is reinforced by bended shear bands 45° placed
parallel to the potential shear crack compared to speci-
men reinforced by shear bands with vertical leg., while
shear bands with vertical legs easier in detailing, place-
ment and guaranteed to fail in more ductile mode. So,
using shear band parallel to the potential shear crack is
less useful comparing with vertical leg or perpendicularly
to the potential shear crack as proven at other research.
6. Stiffness degradation is used to assess the ductility of the
specimen in a way that the lower the stiffness degrada-
tion ratio, the higher is the ductility. Also the essential
demand of energy absorption is to make the concrete
structures have enough ability to dissipate energy during
cyclic loading especially earthquake loads. The high
energy absorption means that the specimen exhibits
more plastic deformation, as the energy absorption pro-
portional to the measure of ductility.
7. We can conclude that all specimens are enhanced com-
pared with the control sample specimen. It reflects sig-
nificant decrease in stiffness degradation while ranges
between (5.2–38.5%) in addition to increase in energy
absorption which ranges between (22–148.3%) and mea-
sure of ductility ranges between (22–79%).
8. Concentration of shear bands (orthogonal distribution)
by doubling quantity of shear bands over the punching
zone area leads to efficient system. The slightly enhance-
ment in failure load capacity ranges is 6%.
9. Radial layout distribution exhibits inconsiderable
improved punching shear resistance although the large
quantity of shear bands which was not beneficial as

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Enhancement of punching shear strength of flat slabs using shear-band reinforcement
expected. All characteristics improved slightly, load
capacity increased by 15%, energy absorption increased
by 22%, measure of ductility increased by 22% while the
stiffness degradation decreased by 5.2%. S4 was consid-
ered the least improved specimen of all specimens
absolutely.
10. The arrangement of shear bands around the column cir-
cumference (Box layout distribution) provides awesome
enhancement in the failure load capacity which
increased by 34% compared with control specimen.
11. Box distribution layout of specimen S6 is more adequate
than orthogonal distribution of specimen S3. Specimen
S6 allows more shear bands located at the punching
perimeter than S3, thus the failure load capacity
increased by about 5%. Also, the ductility and energy
absorption were increased because of wide propagation
of cracks outside the shear reinforcement area. S6 is con-
sidered the second-best improved specimen of all speci-
mens absolutely. S6 comes after S2 in descending
order of improvement ratio in all characteristics.
12. Regardless the specimen is supplied with or without
shear reinforcement, ACI code gives the most appropri-
ate assumptions for calculating the punching shear
strength, while BS-8110 code is the most non-
conservative code with specimens and need to reconsider
its limitations with this specific technique.
13. ACI code sets hard limitations through minimizing the
expected shear stress provided by shear reinforcement
whatever the used quantity of shear reinforcement.
CSA code follow the same concept but with more freely,
where nominal shear stress of shear reinforcement calcu-
lated using CSA code are more that calculated using
ACI code by about 9%.
14. BS-8110 code characterized as the most freely limitation,
probably due to the higher critical shear perimeter on
distance of 1.5d from column face. It was considered
most non-conservative code especially comparing with
S4, S6 and S7 where VCode is higher than Vexp. by
68.4%, 88.6% and 49.3% respectively, while the ratios
of ACI codes were 7.5%, 6.5% and 1% respectively.
And finally CSA code ratios were 19%, 2% and
12.4% respectively.
15. BS-8110 code limitation neither matches the experimen-
tal results nor other codes estimations, so it should be
revaluated with more experimental studies for bridging
the gap between test results and code overestimations.
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7
16. Comparisons of the ACI 318, CSA and BS-8110 code
predictions, and experimental results, which confirm
that the band strips reduces punching shear cracks
which enabled the slabs to avoid punching shear failure
and achieve their flexural potential.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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