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The fanning compression stress pattern in RC deep beams under uniform load presents a challenge to formulating the configuration of strut‐and‐tie model (STM). To this end, this paper proposes an alternative method for creating a graphical discontinuous stress field model (DSFM) to fill up the whole beam continuum. It comprises a certain number of trapezoidal stress‐bands with varying bandwidths, and their stress values can be calculated based on force equilibrium conditions. Several stress subfields are defined through a certain stress combination from several directions. The DSFM is implementable for both service limit state (SLS) and ultimate limit state (ULS) in that its configuration is primarily oriented by elastic stress field and only a limited plastic redistribution is allowed for plastic failure. The graphical procedure of DSFM is demonstrated and examined by a test deep beam example, which shows that the predictions are fairly in good agreement with the test results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reinforced concrete beams lose resistance at high temperatures and so as to guarantee their good performance, it is mandatory to consider this accidental action in design. As an alternative to the methods proposed by the European and Brazilian standards, above all the tabular method that, despite its simple application, limits calculations to a few pre-defined values, a new tool for fire design of these beams is proposed herein. A graphical method was developed with the Temperature Calculation and Design (TCD) software, which performs transient bi-dimensional thermo-structural analysis using the finite element method. The main variable of this method consists of the resistance to the bending moment of a heated cross-section. For its validation, the moment of four rectangular sections was determined according to four simplified methods. These results were compared among themselves and to those obtained by a more advanced method. They were all verified to lead to similar results. With regard to the TCD, whose results were used for the preparation of the graphical method, the maximum difference compared to a more advanced method was approximately 2.5%. After validation, graphs that associate the ratio between the applied moment in fire and the resistance to bending moment at ambient temperature to the fire resistance for different beams were created. These graphs present design solutions for more than 2300 beam models with T-shaped cross-sections in assorted lengths, heights, covers and reinforcement arrangements, both positive and negative. In the application examples, the results from the graphical method were generally more economic when compared to the tabular method of the fire design standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]