Econo-speedy-strength Behaviour of Ferrocement Panel

Abstract

Most developing countries are faced with problems of low standards of living, adject poverty, environmental degradation and housing shortage. Ferrocement technology has been established as environmentally friendly low cost technology. Ferrocement is a type of thin wall reinforced concrete panel where hydraulic cement is reinforced with layers of continuous and relatively small diameter mesh.The present study shows the results of testing flat ferrocement panels reinforced with different number of wire mesh layers. The main focus of this work is to compare ferrocement panel with conventional materials with respect to Strength, Cost, Time for affordable cost housing. The no of layers used to study the flexural strength  are two, three and four for a panels of size (900x300) with thickness 25 mm & three, four, five & six for Slab panels of same size with thickness 40 mm  are reinforced with expanded metal mesh. Panels were casted with mortar of mix proportion 1:1.70 with water cement ratio 0.38 Panels were tested under two point loading system in UTM machine after curing period of 28 days. result shows that panels with less no of layers havinglesser flexural strength and more deflection compared with panels having more no of layers of mesh and panels and construction of structure is rapid and economical as compared with conventional material for affordable housing.