Welded Wire Fabric

for Shear Reinforcement

developed by

PCI Technical Activities Committee's

Joint PCI/WRI Ad Hoc Committee on
Welded Wire Fabric for Shear Reinforcement
LESLIE D. MARTIN
Chairman
JAMES BUSHYEAGER RONALD OPLAND
JOSEPH R. DAVIDSON ALVIN R. SCHWAB
FREDERICK L. FREY HOWARD SMYTH
FRANCIS J. JACQUES WILLIAM V. WAGNER

B ecause the effect of the pre-

stressing force is to reduce
provided by the concrete," at least
a specified minimum area of shear
diagonal tension, the significance steel must be provided, unless
of shear is generally less in pre- tests indicate it is not required.*
stressed than in non-prestressed Generally, the required area will
concrete. However, it is necessary be small for thin-stemmed mem-
to calculate the magnitude of the bers. This fact, together with the
shear and, if it exceeds a value labor savings of wire fabric
prescribed by the governing de- placement compared to placing
sign code, to provide shear rein- many single-plane stirrups as a
forcement. In wider members unit, has made welded wire fabric
such as beams, this reinforcement, a natural choice for shear rein-
if required, is generally in the forcement.
form of multiple leg U-stirrups or The committee was formed for
closed ties. However, in narrow two purposes: (1) to examine any
members such as the stems of code restrictions on the use of
standard precast prestressed dou- welded wire fabric for shear rein-
ble tees, there is generally room forcement, and (2) to explore the
for only a single layer of web possibility of developing standard
reinforcement. sizes of such reinforcement.
In accordance with Chapter 11
of the ACI Code,' when the "fac- *See AC1 318-77, Section [Link]. For many typi-
tored shear force" is greater than cal applications, tests show that the minimum
shear reinforcement requirements may be waived
one-half of the "shear strength for prestressed concrete double tees.

32
Current Practice Code Provisions
The use of welded wire fabric The use of welded wire fabric
for shear reinforcement in shear reinforcement is recognized
double-tee stems has become in several sections of ACI 318-77.
commonplace in the precast, pre- For example:
stressed concrete industry. Com- Section 2.1 — Includes in the
pared with reinforcing bars, the definition of stirrup: "... bars,
use of fabric for this purpose can wires, or welded wire fabric
result in significant savings in (smooth or deformed) ..."
materials and labor, at no apparent Section [Link] —"Shear rein-
reduction in quality. It can even forcement may consist of: ... (b)
be argued that quality is im- Welded wire fabric with wires lo-
proved, since the fabric can often cated perpendicular to axis of
be more accurately placed and member."
since there is less interference However, in Section 12.14,
with concrete placement, and with "Development of web reinforce-
strand and connection hardware. ment," methods of anchorage of
Many double-tee manufacturers smooth welded wire fabric are
use standard sizes of welded wire specified only for the case of sim-
fabric, cutting it to the required ple U-stirrups, and there is no
small size. At least one manufac- provision for anchoring deformed
turer will supply fabric in narrow wire fabric.
widths especially for shear rein- Also, while Section 12.14.2 spe-
forcement. These special fabrics cifically mentions single leg stir-
are available with either smooth rups, there are no provisions for
or deformed wires. The use of anchorage in the tension zone of
standard fabric has the advantage the member other than a standard
of fewer materials to maintain in hook plus embedment. Thus, the
stock, but sacrifices the material designer has had to choose
and labor savings available whether to apply the straight leg
through using specially manufac- compression zone requirements to
tured styles. the tensile side, or to use the an-

PCI JOURNAUJuIy-August 1980 33

chorage requirements for tension minimum spacing of 2 in. (51
stated elsewhere in the chapter. mm), with the inner wire not less
The lack of clarity in the appli- than the greater of d/4 or 2 in.
cation of these provisions suggests from the middepth of the member.
that changes in the AC.I Building 2. For welded deformed wire
Code are desirable. In addition to fabric, one longitudinal wire not
the provisions mentioned above, more than d/4 from the extreme
Sections [Link] and [Link] of ACI faces plus a development length
318-77, which specify welded above and below middepth in ac-
wire fabric materials, are not clear cordance with Section 12.8.2 of
regarding their use as shear rein- ACI 318-77.
forcement. Specifically, the In either case, on the tension
maximum spacing requirements of side of the member, the lon-
12 in. (305 mm) for smooth wire gitudinal wire closest to the face
fabric and 16 in. (406 mm) for de- should not be farther from the face
formed wire fabric are unneces- than the lowest main reinforce-
sary when used for shear rein- ment. These provisions are illus-
forcement, as the only purpose of trated in Fig. 1.
the cross wires is for anchorage of
the main (vertical) wires. Also, the Standardization
words "primary flexural rein- In most practical applications of
forcement" obviously do not apply thin-stemmed double-tee mem-
to fabric used as shear reinforce- bers, the amount of shear rein-
ment. forcement will be determined by
ASTM A497, which ACI 318-77 the minimum requirements.
specifies as the standard for de- Hence, there was unanimous
formed welded wire fabric makes agreement among the members of
no provision for the weld shear this committee who represented
strength of wires smaller than D4 the manufacturers of precast, pre-
(5.72 mm). This, apparently, is be- stressed concrete products that
cause in the major use of de- "standards" should be based on
formed wire fabric, namely, ten- these minimums. When more
sile reinforcement for slabs, shear reinforcement is required, it
smaller wires are seldom used. can be supplied by using multiple
Manufacturers of fabric using layers of the standard, or stock,
smaller deformed wires report no sizes of welded wire fabric.
difficulties in providing equiva- For prestressed members, either
lent weld shear strengths. of two equations in ACI 318-77
This committee believes that may be used to calculate
the intent of ACI 318-77 can be minimum shear reinforcement:
met by straight sheets of welded
wire fabric anchored in both the
tension and compression sides in
the following manner:
A„ = 50 f f.
s (11-14)

Av - AnB fr+s rd
1. For welded smooth wire fab-
8of^d (11-15)
ric, two longitudinal wires with a

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2 HORIZONTAL WIRES
TOP a BOT. I HORIZONTAL WIRE
* TOP & SOT.
d/4 MAX.
2° MIN.
SMOOTH =GREATER DEFORMED
VERTICAL WIRES OF d/4 VERTICAL fed (SECT. 12.8.2)
AS REQUIRED OR 2° WIRES AS
REQUIRED
MID-DEPTH
OF MEMBER
(/d
Qd (SECT. 12.8.2

2MIN.
° MAIN
MAIN REINFORCEMENT d/4 MAX. BUT
REINFORCEMENT * NOT ABOVE
OUTER WIRE NOT ABOVE LOWEST MAIN
LOWEST MAIN REINFORCEMENT * SEE SECTION 12.14.1 REINFORCEMENT

a. SMOOTH VERTICAL WIRES b. DEFORMED VERTICAL WIRES

Fig. 1. Anchorage of single leg welded wire fabric shear reinforcement.

where prestress force is at least 40 per-

A, = area of prestressed rein- cent of the tensile strength of the
forcement, sq in. main reinforcement.
A„= area of shear reinforce- Since either equation may be
ment within a distance, s, used, the required amount of
sq in. minimum shear reinforcement
b,p = web width, in. (for tapered may be based on Eq. (11-14). It
stems, use average width) should be noted, however, that
d= distance from extreme less reinforcement may be per-
compression fiber to cen- mitted by Eq. (11-15)—typically
troid of prestressing ten- for members with fewer strands.
dons, but need not be less The yield strength of all wire
commonly used in welded wire
f-
than 0.80h, in.
specified tensile strength fabric meets or exceeds the upper
of prestressing tendons, limit of 60,000 psi (414 MPa), so
psi Eq. (11-14) can be rewritten as:
f= specified yield strength of
A,, (per ft) = 0.010b
shear reinforcement, psi
[limited to 60,000 psi
(414MPa)]. For the most commonly man-
s = spacing of shear reinforce- ufactured double tees up to 24 in.
ment, in. (610 mm) deep, the average stem
width will vary between 4 and 5
Note that Eq. (11-14) is applica- in. (102 and 127 mm). For the
ble to all reinforced concrete standard sections shown in the
members whereas Eq. (11-15) can PCI Design Handbook, 2 the aver-
only be used when the effective age stem width is 4.75 in. (121

PCI JOURNAL/July-August 1980 35

Table 1. Area of shear reinforcement provided by various sizes and spacing of
vertical wires (sq in./ft).

*Most common in current practice.

tSize recommended for flange reinforcement in double tees?
NOTE: 1 in. = 25.4 mm; 1 sq in. /$ = 2117 mm2/m

mm). Thus, from the above equa- ASTM specifications require

tion, the minimum shear rein- that the smaller wire be at least 35
forcement requirements can be percent of the area of the larger
met with an area of from 0.040 to wire in the case of welded de-
0.050 sq in./ft (85 to 106 mm2/m). formed wire fabric, and 40 percent
With this small range, standardi- for welded smooth wire fabric.
zation of fabric size is possible. For the sizes of vertical wires
In current practice, the most listed in Table 1, these require-
common vertical wire size used is ments are met if the cross wires
W2.9 or D2.9 (6 ga. or 4.88 mm), are at least W1.4 (10 ga. or 3.43
followed by W2.5 or D2.5 (7 ga. or mm).
4.52 mm). Table 1 shows the area
of reinforcement provided by
these two sizes.
References
Note that the sizes marked (*)
and (t) in Table 1 are those most 1. ACI Committee 318, "Building Code
commonly used in current prac- Requirements for Reinforced Concrete
(ACI 318-77)," American Concrete In-
tice. It can be seen that even the
stitute, Detroit, Michigan.
least of these [W2.9 or D2.9 (4.88
2. PCI Design Handbook (Second Edi-
mm) at 7.5 in. (191 mm)] will be tion), Prestressed Concrete Institute,
within 3 percent of meeting the Chicago, Illinois, 1978.
minimum requirements for 3. "Standardization of Welded Wire Fab-
the PCI Design Handbook stan- ric," PCI JOURNAL, V. 21, No. 4,
dard and smaller sections. July-August 1976, pp. 30-37.

Discussion of this report is invited.

Please forward your comments to
PCI Headquarters by March 1, 1981.

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