Abstract:To make up for the deficiency of the existing shear bearing capacity model of reinforced concrete beams with openings, a unified shear bearing capacity model was established based on the codes, considering the parameters such as the failure mode, opening shape, opening size, opening position (horizontal and vertical), reinforcement form and concrete strength. Based on 159 test data, the unified shear bearing capacity model was estabished according to the existing codes, and the test data were used to evaluate the existing model and the unified model. The results showed that it was reasonable to establish the shear strength model according to the failure modes. The unified shear bearing capacity model had a high degree of accuracy. The average value AV, the integral absolute error IAE, and the mean relative error MRE of the shear bearing capacity model under the opening side shear compression failure mode were 1.035, 0.177, and 0.231, respectively. The AV, IAE, and MRE of the shear bearing capacity model under the shear failure mode of the chord were 1.007, 0.166, and 0.212, respectively. With the increase in concrete strength, the reliability index β gradually increased. With the increase of the opening height, the reliability index β decreased gradually. When the opening height was 0.5de (sectional effective height), the reliability index β can still meet the requirements of the code. It is suggested that the opening height should not exceed 0.4de. In a word, the unified shear bearing capacity model established in this paper has high applicability, accuracy, and reliability.