Shear capacity of ferrocement plates in flexure

An experimental study on 18 simply supported ferrocement plates having a span/depth ratio of 2.0 was conducted. Various wire mesh types were used as web reinforcement. Flexural steel was designed to preclude failure in modes other than flexure. Two groups, A and B, were tested under central uniform loads covering 10% and 67.5% of the clear span respectively. It was observed that, the percentage increase of shear capacity over the reference specimen is remarkable for group A and nearly equal to 40%. Moreover, a hexagonal mesh, V(f) of 0.15%, improves the shear capacity than those of diamond and square meshes of 0.25% and 0.38% volume fraction respectively. Specimens of group B demonstrate a slight increase of the ultimate shear capacity than those of group A despite that the web reinforcement is less effective as pointed out by comparing the results of each group with its associated reference specimen. A good agreement between the classical shear equations prediction and the experimental values is obtained for group A specimens whereas the ultimate shear capacity for group B is underestimated. It is also indicated that the strut and tie model is an inappropriate technique for the ferrocement plate design compared to the classical shear equations of deep beams. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.