WEB CRACKING BEHAVIOR OF BEAMS USING WELDED WIRE FABRIC AS SHEAR REINFORCEMENT

Fifteen full size beams were designed and tested to show shearing distress before any significant flexural cracking. The beams were all designed to have approximately the same shearing strength but employed two different arrangements of shear reinforcing bar and three different arrangements of welded wire fabric. The results indicated that control of shear cracking is improved by a closer distribution of both longitudinal and vertical steel. It is hypothesized that there is a minimum spacing above which confinement is poor even though large bars and high yield strength steel are used.