Structural performance of ferrocement beams reinforced with composite materials

Abstract

An experimental program was designed in the current work to examine the structural behavior of ferrocement beams reinforced with composite materials under three point loadings up to failure. The experimental program comprised casting and testing of twelve ferrocement beams having the dimensions of 120 mm width, 200 mm depth and 1600 mm length. The twelve beams were different in the type of reinforcements; steel bars, traditional wire meshes (welded and expanded wire meshes) and composite materials (fiberglass wire meshes and polypropylene wire meshes). The flexural performances of the all tested beams in terms of strength, ductility, cracking behavior and energy absorption were investigated. Also all the tested beams were simulated using ANSYS program. The results of the experimental tests concluded that the beam with fiber glass meshes gives the lowest first crack load and ultimate load. The ferrocement beam reinforced with four layers of welded wire meshes has better structural behavior than those beams reinforced with other types of wire meshes. Also the beams reinforced with metal wire meshes give smaller cracks width in comparing with those reinforced with non-metal wire meshes. Also the Finite Element (FE) simulations gave good results comparing with the experimental results.