Improving the compressive behavior of RC walls reinforced with ferrocement composites under centric and eccentric loading

Abstract

This study discusses the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) walls reinforced with different types of ferrocement composites under concentric and eccentric loading. The study incorporated experimental examination and nonlinear finite element analysis of ten RC walls with dimensions of 1000 mm in height, 1500 mm in width, and 150 mm in depth with RC footing with dimensions 1900 mm X 500 mm X 200 mm. The specimens were divided into two groups, one examined under concentric load and the other examined under eccentric load with eccentricity of 50 mm. Also, the structural behavior of the tested walls was validated with numerical development of a finite element model utilizing Ansys 2019-R1 software. Expanded or glass fiber wire mesh ferrocement tested specimens under concentric and eccentric line compression loading exhibited enhanced ultimate loads compared to control specimens. Expanded steel wire mesh reinforcement increased the ductility ratio compared to glass fiber mesh reinforcement. Glass fiber wire mesh produced a higher first cracking load, serviceability load, load carrying capacity, and energy absorption compared to expanded wire mesh. Good agreement between numerical and experimental results in first cracking load, load-carrying capacity, crack pattern, and deflection was found. The agreement between the experimental load carrying capacity and non linear finite element (NLFE) ones is about 86 % with coefficient of variance equals 0.003 and standard deviation of 0.06. The finite element analysis gave suitable estimation for the structural performance of nonlinear ferrocement RC walls.