Flexural behavior of concrete beams with welded wire fabric as shear reinforcement

The purpose of this study is to investigate the flexural behavior of beams with welded wire fabric (WWF) as shear reinforcement. A total of 32 beam specimens were tested; fifteen of them contained closed type conventional steel bars as shear reinforcement, while the others contained WWF as shear reinforcement. The parameters studied in this research included concrete strength, shear span to depth ratio, amount of fly ash, amount of longitudinal reinforcement, and amount of transverse reinforcement. The results show that the flexural strengths of beams with either conventional or WWF shear reinforcement are higher than those predicted by the ACI Code method. Beams with WWF shear reinforcement exhibit higher strength than those with conventional shear reinforcement due to better confinement. The ductility and crack control of beams with WWF shear reinforcement are also better than those containing conventional shear reinforcement.