Developments in prestressed concrete have led to the increasing use of thin-webbed prestressed concrete I and box beams, especially in highway bridges and elevated guideways for transit systems. Such beams are susceptible to a web crushing type of shear failure due to high compressive stresses induced in the web by applied shear forces. Thus, web crushing may become the governing failure mode in thin-webbed beams, since the complementary tensile stresses in the web can be resisted by the provision of adequate web reinforcement.
