Does the shear strength of reinforced concrete beams and slabs depend upon the flexural reinforcement ratio or the reinforcement strain?

Beam tests are conducted to investigate the effect of the reinforcement ratio, ρ, and the shear span to depth ratio, a/d, on the shear strength of reinforced concrete beams and slabs without stirrups. The a/d ratio is shown to have a very significant effect on shear strength at both low values of a/d (where failure is governed by strut-and-tie mechanisms) and large values of a/d (where failure is governed by breakdown in beam action). Increases in ρ associated with increases in a/d such that the strain, or M/ρVd ratio, is kept constant will result in constant failure shear stresses. Shear design methods that do not account for a/d (e.g., ACI Committee 440) cannot predict the observed experimental behaviour, whereas the general method of the CSA A23.3 code can. Using the ACI 440 equation for Vc may reduce the economic competitiveness of fibre-reinforced polymer reinforcement versus steel reinforcement.