RC Deep Beam

What is RC Deep Beam ?

Deep beams are structural elements loaded as beams in which a significant amount of the load is transferred to the supports by a compression thrust joining the load and the reaction. As a result, the strain distribution is no longer considered linear, and the shear deformations become significant when compared to pure flexure.

Floor slabs under horizontal load, short span beams carrying heavy loads, and transfer girders are examples of deep beams.

RC deep beams have many useful applications in building structures such as transfer girders, wall footings, foundation pile caps, floor diaphragms, and shear walls.

EXAMPLE

RC deep beams, which fail with shear compression, are the structural members having a shear span (orange line(a)) to effective depth (black line(d)) ratio, a/d, not exceeding 1.