Investigation on Voided Ferrocement Channel Beams in Shear

摘要

This paper presents an experimental study on the strength and behavioural aspects of voided ferrocement channel type beams for pre-cast purposes. As these beams are lighter in weight, these find their place in seismic resistant design of structures. Forty-eight channel type (24 solid and 24 voided) ferrocement beams were cast and tested under four-point loading. The variable parameters included the number of layers of wire mesh and shear span to depth (a/d) ratio. From the test results, it is observed that the cracking and ultimate shear strength of solid and voided beams increases as the a/d ratio is decreased and volume fraction of mesh reinforcement is increased. As the number of mesh layers is increased the post cracking ductility of the ferrocement beams also increases. It is also found that, up to a shear span to depth ratio of three, shear behaviour is predominant. Beyond shear span to depth ratio three, the flexural behaviour is predominant for both solid and voided beams. An empirical equation is proposed in this paper to estimate the shear resistance of each of the solid and voided ferrocement channel beams.