A new technique for using expanded wire fabric (EWF) as additional reinforcement and permanent formwork for reinforced concrete beams is proposed. Five beam specimens were experimentally tested, namely, an under reinforced control beam containing only conventional reinforcement and other four beams additionally reinforced with EWF for shear and flexure. The studied parameters included the orientation of EWF, the amount of longitudinal and transverse EWF, and the method of application of EWF. The results showed that the use of EWF led to an improvement in deflection and ductility of test beams. In addition, beams reinforced with EWF showed better crack control in comparison with the control beam having only conventional reinforcement. The orientation and method of application of EWF have a great effect on flexural behavior of beams. The beam reinforced with U shape EWF jacket and additional layer of EWF flexural reinforcement showed better properties compared with the other beams. Its load capacity was increased by 20%, strain reached the maximum of (0.014) and the crack widths were reduced by approximately 35% compared to the control beam with conventional reinforcement. A proposed formula was developed for predicting the effect of EWF on crack control. The results obtained by this formula were in good agreement with the experimental results. |
