Effectiveness of stainless steel wire mesh in shear strengthening of reinforced concrete flanged beam

The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of externally bonded stainless steel wire mesh (SSWM) in enhancing the shear strength of reinforced concrete (RC) flanged beams with T-shape cross-section. To identify appropriate SSWM as a strengthening material, tension test and bond test are performed on five locally available SSWM. An experimental investigation is conducted to study the behaviour of RC T-beams strengthened by externally bonded 40 × 32 type SSWM under transverse loading. Two beams are considered as control specimen, and four beams are externally strengthened by two different wrapping configurations. All beams are tested under the two-point loading until failure. Results of experimental investigation, in terms of cracking load, ultimate load, deflection, prove the effectiveness of SSWM in shear strengthening of beams. The numerical model of controlled and SSWM strengthened T-beam specimen is also developed using finite element based software ABAQUS to validate experimental results.