Study of Flexural Behaviour of Warp Knitted Reinforced Ferrocement Composites

Abstract

This paper presents the effect of warp knit textile reinforcement in ferrocement laminates. In general, steel wire mesh is used as ferrocement reinforcement, which is often known as chicken mesh. The need for the replacement of steel mesh is the problem of corrosion, which reduces the durability of ferrocement laminate. High performance synthetic fibres and fabrics are constantly used in various research works as reinforcement in concrete. In this paper, an attempt was made to incorporate three different nylon warp knit mesh structures in the place of chicken mesh. Ferrocement composites were produced with chicken mesh and nylon warp knit fabrics. The flexural properties of ferrocement laminates were analysed in terms of the first crack load, ultimate load, energy absorption capacity and ductility factor. Nylon square mesh with 3 layers in the reinforcement has a 2.5 kN first crack load and 3.36 kN ultimate load, which is higher than chicken mesh reinforcement in ferrocement laminate. The results show that there is an improvement in the flexural properties of ferrocement laminates reinforced with a nylon warp knit structure. The flexural parameters have a direct relationship with the number of layers used in the reinforcement.