Assessment of reliability of existing equations predicting the shear strength of reinforced concrete beams by using probabilistic methods

The reliability of a structural system can be provided by ensuring that the capacities of the structural system and the members constituting the structural system (R) are adequate for resisting the maximum load effects that can occur in its lifetime. While capacity being larger than demand (R>S) corresponds to a reliable system, demand being larger than capacity (S>R) means collapse. The objective of reliability analysis is to meet the requirements essential for providing (R>S). In those cases, structural reliability can be predicted by second moment approaches that can be approximate probabilistic methods. In this study, the equations predicting the shear strength of a reinforced concrete beam with stirrups available in the literature are used in defining a performance function related to the reliability of those equations. Assuming that random variables of the performance function are statistically independent, the probability of shear failure and the shear reliability of reinforced concrete beams are assessed. The beams with various geometrical and material properties, whose experimental results are available in the literature, are used in this assessment.