The beam specimens were cast in two groups. The
dimensions were reduced geometrically from an actual
bridge deck. Beams were cast in scaled dimensions of the
actual bridge deck slabs between two adjacent girders.
The first set of composite beams cast, were of dimensions
152 · 152 · 914 mm (6 in. · 6 in. · 36 in.). The
bottom 25.4 mm of these beams was a ferrocement
laminate, with steel wire mesh as reinforcement. The top
127 mm of concrete with a No. 10 (No. 3 in US Customary
System of units) rebar was cast on top the ferrocement
laminate. The rebar was located at 12.7 mm
above the ferrocement laminates.
A total of 24 simply supported composite beams were
tested under a two-point loading system. All beams are
designed to be minimally-reinforced. Details of the
beam specimens are summarized in Table 1. The beam
specimens are classified into two groups. Group (A1)
consists of a total of four beams: three composite beams
having 4, 6, and 8 layers of square mesh in the one inch
thick ferrocement layer, respectively, and one reinforced
concrete beam. Group (A2) consists of a total of four
beams: three are composite having 4, 6, and 8 layers of
hexagonal mesh in the one inch thick ferrocement layer,
respectively, and one reinforced concrete beam. Both
groups (B1) and (B2) are reinforced with one (No. 10)
rebar as the main reinforcement in the concrete layer.
On the other hand, Groups (B10 and (B2) beams have
different types of shear studs introduced to study the
composite behavior of both layers and the minimum
number of studs required to ensure flexural rather bond
type of failure.