Flexural Behavior of Ferrocement Plates Incorporating Steel and PET Fibers

Abstract

Ferrocement plate with steel meshes incorporating fibers in an identical matrix were tested under bending. The main objective of the study was to investigate the effects of combining reinforcing steel meshes with discontinuous fibers as reinforcement in thin mortar matrix. The variable parameters were chosen as (a) number of mesh layers, single and double (b) the types of fiber i.e steel and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Everything else being equal, the test results shows that addition of steel fibers to the matrix of ferrocement can effectively increase its flexural strength and energy absorption to failure. Cracking and spalling of mortar cover also significantly reduced. On the other hand, the contributions of same volume fraction of PET fibers are not significant compared to steel. However, addition of PET fibers control the early cracking of thin mortar and showed slight improvement in flexural strength and energy absorption to failure compared to control specimens. Reinforcing ferrocement plates incorporating steel or PET fibers is recommended for providing technical and economical advantages as no negative effect was observed.