Experimental Study on Behaviour of Concrete Beams Strengthened Using Stainless Steel Wire Mesh (SSWM)

For strengthening concrete elements, externally bonded reinforcement, strip, or wrap of high-strength material is employed. The present paper reports an experimental investigation carried out to evaluate the enhancement in flexural strength of a plain concrete beam with externally bonded stainless steel wire mesh (SSWM). Concrete structural elements strengthened with locally available SSWM present ductile behaviour without its debonding up to failure. Plain cement concrete beams of 100 mm × 100 mm × 500 mm cast using M25 grade concrete are used for the investigation. Three types of wire mesh SSWM, 30 × 32, 40 × 32, and 50 × 34 are used for flexural strengthening of beams with strips bonded in the tension zone. After 28 days of curing, SSWMs are applied with epoxy SIKADUR 30LP for the proper bond with the concrete surface. A total of 12 specimens are prepared to evaluate the flexural strength of control and strengthened specimens. All tests are performed with 4-point bending loading conditions using flexural testing machine. The type of failure, failure loads, and strain values is measured during the flexural test. Concrete beams strengthened with SSWM show a 46.96% to 60.84% increase in flexural strength with a single layer of SSWM. No debonding of SSWM from the concrete surface is observed during the flexural test. Based on the performance of concrete beams strengthened with different wire mesh, SSWM 40 × 32 is recommended for strengthening concrete beams.