Structural Characteristics of Lightweight Ferrocement Walls with Various Types of Core Materials and Mesh Reinforcement

This research presented the structural characteristics of lightweight ferrocement walls with various types of core materials and mesh reinforcement. Specimens were reinforced with expanded metal mesh, welded wire mesh and tenax SS30 mesh. Ten specimens having cross-sectional dimensions of (80 cm *10 cm) and height of 100 cm were cast and tested until failure. Structural behavior of studied walls in terms of; first crack load, ultimate load, service load ,ductility ratio and energy absorption were investigated in addition to crack pattern and mode of failure for all tested specimens. Theoretical study was conducted by finite element software (ABAQUS) to evaluate the experimental results and this theoretical study gave good results comparing with the experimental results. This study revealed that the ultimate load for control (CO) specimen was more than the ultimate load for the other specimens that reinforced with welded wire mesh (W), expanded metal mesh (EX) and tenax SS30 mesh (TE). In addition, using the ultimate load for one layer of expanded steel mesh (EX1) was greater than the ultimate load for specimens that reinforced with one layer of welded wire mesh (W1) and one layer tenax mesh (TE1), as well using two layers of expanded steel mesh (EX2) was greater than specimens that reinforced with two layers of welded wire mesh (W2) and two layers of tenax mesh (TE2). And it was observed that the maximum weight/ load ratio for (CO) and (W4) specimens and the minimum weight/ load ratio for (W1) specimen.