One-way slabs subjected to combination of loads failing in shear

Previous experimental research indicated an increased shear capacity for slabs under concentrated loads as compared to beams. Expressions have been derived for this increase, including the definition of an appropriate effective width. It is unknown, however, if the uniformly distributed loads on solid slab bridges - for example, due to dead loads - acting over the full width, can be combined with the effects of concentrated loads, acting only over the associated effective width at the support. To study this problem, additional experiments have been carried out. In these experiments, a combination of loads consisting of a concentrated load close to the support and a line load over the full slab width are applied. The experimental results prove that the superposition principle gives conservative results for combinations of concentrated loads and distributed loads.