Flexural performance of ferrocement based on sustainable high-performance mortar

Abstract

The selection of the building material for economic and sustainable construction requires understanding the material behavior. Therefore, this research studied the behavior of eco-friendly high-performance mortar(HPM) that is used for producing ferrocement. The experimental program has been divided into four phases. The first phase involved the investigation of optimal non-reinforced HPM which contains 20 % of Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCM). The second phase studied the behavior of HPM reinforced with different percentages (0.5 %–1.5 %) of natural sisal fibers(NSF). The third phase exhibited the performance of ferrocement, produced from the optimal non-reinforced and reinforced HPM, under bending stresses. The last phase introduced the economic feasibility of research work. The results showed that using silica fume and metakaolin by 9% and 11 % by weight of cement, respectively, improved the properties of HPM better than other percentages used. The flexural strength, flexural toughness, splitting tensile strength, and elastic modulus increased with adding of NSF in contrast to flowability, compressive strength, and UPV. Moreover, the flexural behavior of ferrocement units improved with the incorporation of NSF. The cost analysis between conventional reinforced concrete and ferrocement panels as a roofing system showed that the initial cost and a dead load of roof decrease by about 27 % and 83 % respectively.

Keywords

• Ferrocement
• Metakaoline
• Silica fume
• Sisal fibers
• Cost analysis