Abstract:
Reports on Ferrocement indicate that this composite is gaining increased interest especially in developing countries. It is believed that there could be demand for it also in Turkey. Therefore a prelimary study was made to determine the possible ranges of quality and approximate cost using local reinforcing mesh material in ferrocement and reported in this thesis. First a literature survey was made about covering its history, development, composition, production techniques and areas of application. Secondly small size ferrocement specimens were prepared using local wire mesh materials (square woven mesh, chicken wire and expanded metal). These specimens were subjected to simple beam bending tests, charpy impact tests,and tensile strenght tests. Some specimens were also tested after heating to 800 C temperature to determine its after-fire properties. The effect of reinforcement parameters on machanical properties such as flexural rigidity, stress at flrst crack, ultimate strength in bending-impact and tensile strength have been evaluated. Results were in favor of square woven mesh in the longitudinal direction with four layers. They indicated an upper limit to the volume percentage. They showed that a composite with considerably improved strength, ductility, toughness, and fire resistance could be obtained. Thirdly full size ferrocement samples having a length of 100 cm, a width of 50 cm and a higth of 2 cm, reinforced with four layers of square woven mesh in the longitudinal direction were prepared for studying their suitability to be used as a roofing material. They were loaded in flexure on a free span of 80 cm, under four equal concentro.ted forces spaced at 16 cm from each other. Measurements of deflection, curvature, tensile and compressive strains, observation of crack number, crack width and crack spacing, observation of creep deflections, and ultimate moment were made and their result were evaluated. Finally all results were evaluated and some conclusiors were reached. Favorable results were obtained indicating the suitability of this type of ferrocement for roofing purposes unper 2 types of loading. Flrst is the dead load and snow: The second is the dead load and a concentrated force of 100 kg at center.
