Effective Use of Space Swimmer Bars in Reinforced Concrete Flat Slabs

One of the controlling factors in the design of reinforced concrete flat plates is the punching shear criteria. Engineers, in many cases, will be reluctant to increase the plate thickness, use column crown or order to satisfy the punching shear criteria. This study introduces an effective use of space swimmer bars as punching shear reinforcement in flat plates. Swimmer bars are short inclined steel reinforcement bars welded to both top and bottom flexural reinforcement. In this study pyramid shape will be investigated since the punching shear takes the form of a truncated pyramid or a truncated cone. A counteract truncated pyramid or a truncated cone of reinforcement forming space three dimens inclined planes crossing the four inclined planes of the cracks. The number of truncated pyramid may be increased for large applied punching shear force