Sphrical Slab with Ferrocement

Abstract

This research is devoted to investigate the behavior of spherical ferrocement slabs under flexural loading. The main parameters considered in the analysis are the thickness of the slab, vertical and horizontal diameters, and the effect of number of wire mesh layers on the behavior of spherical. Analysis was done using the finite element software ANSYS V. 11, which is used for solving several problems of structural engineering. The 8-node iso-parametric brick elements in ANSYS are used to represent the mortar, the wire mesh layers are considered as smeared layers elastic-perfectly plastic materials embedded within the brick elements by assuming perfect bond between the mortar and steel. An improvement was indicated in the behavior of the elements when changing the shape of the slab from straight to spherical slabs found in deflection about 64% (as indicated in ref. [1]). As well as increasing number of wire mesh layers from two to four and from two to six tend to increase the load capacity by 18% and 28% respectively. The increase in the thickness and the vertical diameter cause decrease in deflection to 20% and 10% alternately.

Keywords

• ferrocement slabs
• ansys
• finite element
• flexural behavior
• wire mesh layers