Response of Reinforced Concrete Shell Elements Subjected to In-Plane and Out-of-Plane Shear.

This paper investigates the response of reinforced concrete shell elements subjected to all eight stress resultants (in-plane shear, two out-of-plane shears, torsion, two axial loads, and two moments). Twelve new experiments subjected to different combinations of in-plane and out-of-plane loads are presented. The experiments examine the influence of varying quantities of transverse shear reinforcement and concrete strengths. The paper also presents a new nonlinear, high-powered, macro finite element model called Shell II. The Shell II method is a three-layered model based on the equations of the Modified Compression Field Theory and is capable of predicting the full three-dimensional load-deformation response of shell elements subjected to combined loads. Shell II is also used to examine the experimental results in the context of in-plane versus out-of-plane shear-stress interaction diagrams. The results highlight the importance of considering combined loading in predicting the response of shells in three dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]