Experimental Investigation on Shear Property of RC Beams with Aramid Fiber Mesh Stirrups

Abstract

This paper develops a new-typed high-durability RC structures in which the steel stirrups are replaced by mesh stirrups weaved with soft high performance fiber belt. The experiments are carried out to investigate the shear property of six beams with soft aramid fiber mesh stirrups and one common RC beam and the results show that the failure state in the slope sections of the RC beams with fiber belt mesh stirrups is similar to the common RC beam. It was also found the shear property of beams with lean fiber mesh stirrups is better than that with vertical and horizontal mesh stirrups, and with the high-elastic- modulus fiber stirrups better than the low-elastic-modulus’s. In addition, the distributions of fiber stirrups strain at slope section are also observed. Based the experimental results, a model for beams with fiber mesh stirrups was established and the formula of shear bearing capacity was suggested.