Beams with short span lengths compared to the span length of the other beams that belong to the same floor, might not have a serious bending problem but as a rule, their behavior is greatly affected by intense shear stresses. A part of the applied shear forces comes from the gravity loads however, the largest part is due to the earthquake ground motion. Apart from their high values, these shear forces reverse direction during the seismic event.

Short beam reinforcement details

In short beams, the diagonal tensile stresses are carried by placing a strong transverse reinforcement towards all directions i.e. by placing densely spaced, properly closed stirrups and lateral rebars. Theoretically, the best solution is to use special “X” shaped stirrups, however most of the times, this is a technically challenging procedure.

Short beam rebars detailing drawing