Title: A study on flexural behaviour of ferrocement slabs using foamed concrete

Authors: Kumutha Rathinam; Vijai Kanagarajan

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Civil Engineering, St. Joseph's College of Engineering, OMR, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: Ferrocement is a material used for construction consisting of wire meshes and a conventional cement mortar. The aim of this research is to evaluate experimentally the flexural behaviour of ferrocement slabs by considering different parameters such as types of sand, number of layers of wire mesh and percentage of foaming agent. Slabs were cast using river sand and manufactured sand (M-Sand) with single and double layers of welded wire mesh. Synthetic foaming agent was also added in the mortar mix in various percentages such as 0%, 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8% and 1% by weight of cement. The effect of the above-mentioned parameters on the ultimate strength, deflection, energy absorption capacity and ductility of slabs was determined and discussed. From the test results, it is seen that behaviour of ferrocement slabs with M-Sand are almost similar to the behaviour of slabs with river sand in terms of ultimate load carrying capacity. The addition of foaming agent has significant influence on the self-weight reduction and improved ductility of ferrocement slabs.

Keywords: ferrocement; mortar; flexural; river sand; M sand; foaming agent.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTRUCTE.2023.126809

International Journal of Structural Engineering, 2023 Vol.13 No.1, pp.63 - 79

Received: 30 Jan 2021
Accepted: 13 Apr 2022
Published online: 07 Nov 2022 *