Flexural characteristics of lightweight ferrocement beams with various types of core materials and mesh reinforcement

•The main objective is to studying the flexural behaviour of ferrocement beams with lightweight cores and types of mesh reinforcement.•Cores were made of autoclaved aerated lightweight brick, extruded foam, and lightweight concrete cores; and are reinforced with expanded metal mesh, welded wire mesh and fibre glass mesh.•Flexural behaviour including first crack loads and deflections, ultimate loads and deflections, ductility index, strain characteristics, crack pattern and failure mode were investigated.•Effect of different types of core materials and mesh reinforcement on the flexural behaviour of studied beams was investigated.•Ferrocement beams of light weight cores may be promising as an alternative to conventional beams especially for low cost residential buildings.