Shear Evaluation
The method used to calculate the shear strength at a Section Cut depends on the method employed by the design code being considered. There are two approaches for evaluating the shear capacity of a section: Shear on Entire Section and Shear on Segments. A discussion of each follows.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Shear on Entire Section | If calculating the shear strength by this method, the entire Section Cut is considered as a single unit. The direction of the resultant shear force on the Section Cut is determined. Then the planar shear capacity of each panel that intersects the Section Cut is calculated and multiplied by the respective directional cosine to determine the strength contribution in the direction of the resultant shear. This is repeated for each Load Combination. |
| Shear on Segments | This method evaluates the shear on Section Cut Segments, rather than on an entire Section Cut (See Manual Creation of Section Cuts for a discussion of Section Cut Segments). A Section Cut Segment will always represent an extent of wall cross section of uniform thickness and a single reinforcing pattern, for which the shear strength can be easily determined. The shear strength of each Section Cut Segment within a Section Cut is calculated and compared to the combined loads acting on the Section Cut Segment. Shear is evaluated for the direction in the plane and out of plane of the segment for ACI codes, while is only evaluated for in-plane direction for other codes. To determine which method is utilized for a particular code (Shear on entire section or Shear on segments), see the technical notes for the respective design code. |