An experimental and numerical investigation on flexural characteristics of wire mesh reinforced concrete beam blended with rice husk ash (RHA) and nano silica

Abstract The reinforced concrete beam is strengthened with an additional reinforcement namely Welded Wire Mesh (WWM) blended with RHA and Nano silica was investigated for its flexural behaviour. The flexural behaviour of modified beam provided with single and double layers of welded wire mesh was compared with the conventional RC beam. The paper also presents the benefits of using cement with rice husk ash with proportion of 20% in addition to 3% of Nano silica against the reference mixture of Portland cement (100%) i.e. partial replacement. The structural indicators namely first crack load, ultimate load, deflection at first crack load, deflection at ultimate load, crack pattern and ductility index were studied. The load deflection curve was further used to compare the structural characteristics. From experimental and numerical results concluded that, WWM2, WWM1 and WWM0 beam has high ultimate load comparatively 23%, 21.5% and 6.6% respectively higher than control beam and the crack found in the beam indicates that, beams has the capacity to carry higher bending stress with too lesser shear failure expect control beam. It is concluded that WWM2 beam has high ultimate load comparatively 23% higher than control beam and the crack found in the beam indicates that, WWM2 beam has the capacity to carry higher bending stress with too lesser shear failure.