Reinforced Concrete Circular Deep Beams - Finite Element Parametric Study

Abstract

This paper presents a parametric study using finite element analysis of twenty six reinforced concrete circular deep beams. The considered parameters are loading type (partial and full), diameter, height and width of the circular beam, in addition to number of supports. It is concluded that applying a central partial uniformly distributed loading by 33-100% of the span length increased the load capacity by about 4-39%, and at the same time, decreased the maximum deflection and torsional moments by about 10-30% and 4-26%, respectively as compared with equivalent concentrated central loading. Increasing beam diameter by 33-167% led to decrease the load capacity by about 7-35%, while the deflection and torsional moments increased by about 41-265% and 24-77%, respectively. The load capacity and torsional moments increased by about 14-68% and 14-86%, respectively whereas deflection decreased by about 7-23% when the height of beam increased by 11-56%. The load capacity, deflection and torsional moments increased by about 163-458%, 54-83% and 160-451%, respectively when the circular beam width increased by 50-150%. Finally, it is found that the load capacity increased by about 85-365%, while the deflection and torsional moments decreased by about 24-56% and 10-46%, respectively when number of support increased by 25-100%.