Flexural Behaviour of Skinned Beams with Different Shapes of Steel Mesh Confinements

Abstract

- Jacketing is a popular technique in modern civil engineering for strengthening and modifying structures. It is used to increase bearing load capacity or to restore structural design integrity after the structural design has been altered or after a structural member has failed. This method is typically utilized for horizontal surfaces such as the bottom and sides of beams and vertical surfaces such as walls and columns. This study investigates the flexural performance of high-strength concrete beams reinforced with steel wire mesh in various forms, such as hexagonal steel wire mesh, square wire mesh, and diamond wire mesh, using the concept of dual-layer concrete. At First, three sets of 450 x 50 x 50 mm beams were cast, and three different mesh configurations were confined around the beam and filled with concrete to form 500 x100 x 100 mm beams. The flexural behaviour of these beams was carefully examined under load controlling machine (UTM). The study found that adding steel wire meshes to beams as confinement enhances their total flexural strength and the behaviour of the beams failure mechanism when subjected to two-point stress. The Flexural strength has been increased by an amount of 10%, 23% and 35% respectively for hexagonal, square and diamond meshes. However, the specimen restricted with diamond mesh wrapped around the inner core performs more effectively than the specimen with Square and hexagonal wrapped around the core in terms of Stress-strain curves and Young’s Modulus.