Ferrocement roofing panels for cold and hot regions

Abstract

A composite material consists of a matrix and a reinforcement which act together to form a new material with superior characteristics alone. Ferrocement, a homogeneous composite material, which contains a high percentage of ductile steel wire mesh with a higher surface area to volume ratio in a brittle cement-mortar matrix, enables the matrix to assume the ductile characteristics of the reinforcement. The strength of ferrocement, as in all construction materials is considered as the most valuable property, although in many practical cases other characteristics, such as durability and permeability may in fact be more important. Ferrocement has proved to be durable over long use, exhibits good ductile flexure behavior and provides reasonably good water tightness properties. The widespread use of ferrocement has begun only in the last three decades. Thus the state-of-the-art of ferrocement is still in its infancy. Nevertheless, sufficient design information is available and adequate field experience has been acquired to enable safe design and construction of many types of ferrocement structures Some applications of ferrocement appear especially attractive. They include boats, silos, tanks and roofs. For industrially developed countries ferrocement seems economical for medium size storage tanks, some types of roof shell construction and wherever the ease of forming complicated shapes and the lighter weights of ferrocement can be safely exploited. Corrugated ferrocement sheets have been developed and tested by the Building Research Institute, Colombo, Sri- Lanka. These sheets are developed as a replacement for asbestos cement corrugated sheets, which are widely used as roofing material. It has been reported that ferrocement sheets are less expensive. The ferrocement sheets are so designed that their we