The Effect of High-Strength Concrete on Punching Shear Strength of Reinforced Concrete Flat Plates

High strength concrete (HSC) has been used widely over the last decade due to its improved characteristics. HSC has also been widely used in flat plates. Flat plates due to their limited depth are sensitive to punching shear. Most of the current design codes are based on empirical researches conducted on normal strength concrete (NSC) specimens. HSC has different fracture mechanisms compared to NSC. Therefore, it is essential to re-examine codes equations in order to be proper for HSC members. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of using HSC on current design relationships and find the most convenient formula for predicting the punching shear capacity of interior slab-column connections. Design formulas used in this research consist of four design codes, ACI 318, Eurocede2, BS 8110, DIN 1045 and six proposed formulas by other researchers for HSC flat plates. For checking the accuracy of these design methods, 50 test results from the literature conducted on HSC slab specimens are elected to compare with formulas.