Behavior of reinforced concrete walls with welded wire mesh subjected to cyclic loading

Reinforced concrete (RC) structural walls are widely recognized for providing adequate lateral load resistance and drift control for multistory buildings in seismic regions. If properly designed and detailed, they can exhibit high ductility and excellent energy dissipation capacity. In practice, distributed shear reinforcement, obtained by use of ordinary longitudinal bars and transverse stirrups, can be conveniently substituted by welded wire mesh fabric. Little is known, however, about the influence of welded mesh fabric on structural ductility. This paper presents the results of an experimental research project on 18 cantilever walls subjected to in-plane cyclic loading. The main objective is to establish whether welded wire mesh fabric can provide sufficient ductility for seismic applications. The tests show that walls reinforced by means of hot-rolled (HR) mesh exhibit ductility properties comparable to those reinforced with ordinary reinforcement only. On the contrary, traditional cold-drawn (CD) mesh fabric proved to be unsuitable for seismic applications.