Shear Behavior of Steel‐Reinforced HSC Deep Beams: Experimental Investigation and Finite Element Analysis

Through loading tests on the steel‐reinforced high‐strength concrete deep beams (denoted as steel‐reinforced HSC deep beams), the influence of design parameters on the shear performance of deep beams is thoroughly analyzed. The design parameters include longitudinal reinforcement ratio ρ s (0.67%, 1.05%, and 1.25%), horizontal reinforcement ratio ρ sh (0.33%, 0.45%, and 0.50%), shear span‐to‐depth ratio λ (0.3, 0.6, and 0.9), and stirrup reinforcement ratio ρ sv (0.25%, 0.33%, and 0.50%). Experimental observations focused on three key aspects (a) concrete surface crack evolution, (b) ultimate failure modes, and (c) shear failure progression to comprehensively understand deep beam shear mechanisms. Experimental results demonstrate that λ influences the shear behavior of test specimens. As the λ increases, the shear resistance decreases, whereas higher longitudinal reinforcement ratios improve shear capacity. Increasing the web reinforcement ratio suppresses formation of shear‐induced tensile cracks, thereby improving the shear resistance of deep beams. A nonlinear finite element analysis model was developed for deep beams, incorporating a concrete plastic damage constitutive model and a bilinear steel reinforcement model. The comparison of the calculation results shows that the maximum error in the bearing capacity of deep beams is 15.62%, and the average error is 7.59%. The numerical simulation results exhibit excellent correlation with experimental data, validating the reliability of the finite element approach in predicting the shear behavior of deep beams.