Behaviour and Strength of Ferrocement Rectangular Beams in Shear- A Experimental Study

Abstract

Ferrocement is another form of reinforced concrete in which the cement mortar is reinforced with closely spaced layers of continuous and relatively small diameter wire mesh. Early applications of Ferrocement have been to building of boats. Its application to terrestrial structures started much later. The experimental investigation includes casting and testing of 24 rectangular beams and 8 cubes. The specimens were divided into eight series; A to H according to the volume fraction of reinforcement, compressive strength of the mortar, and amount of reinforcement was varied in Series A to H by varying the number of layers of wire mesh. Specimens in these series were symmetrically reinforced with 4, 6, 8 and 10 layers of wire mesh, respectively, and were lumped together near each face with a clear cover of 5 mm. Series E and F were identical to Series D except for the compressive strength of the mortar. The remaining two Series G and H were also identical to Series D, but the amount of reinforcement near the compression face was different. While the specimens in Series H were provided with two layers of wire mesh, those in Series G contained no reinforcement near the compression face. The parameter investigated in each series was the shear-span-to -depth ratio a/h, which was achieved by varying the shear span to overall depth ratio from 1 to 2 at increments of 0.5 for the sake of simplicity since several reinforcement layers were involved.