Study on the flexural properties of synthetic warp knitted fabric reinforced ferrocement composites

Abstract

Concrete is the basic element of the construction industry. Another distinctive construction element is the ferrocement which is popular in this field for its minimum thickness and known as thin composite elements. The ferrocement composite is made up by the combination of cement, sand and water, which is known as mortar mix and this, is reinforced with chicken mesh wire. This chicken mesh ferrocement composite is preferred in the construction area where less strength is enough in the structure compared to the concrete beam requirement. Chicken mesh ferrocement composite possesses lesser thickness with good tensile strength, impact strength, flexural properties, simpler construction, lesser cost and a lesser amount of raw material. This chicken mesh ferrocement has a disadvantage of lesser durability and poor corrosion resistance, which affect the performance and life of the ferrocement element. To overcome this problem, a lot of research works were carried out with to enhance the performance properties and to sort out the corrosion issue of chicken mesh wire. As a part of research work, fibre reinforced ferrocement composites were prepared to enhance the performance properties of ferrocement composites. To overcome the issue of corrosion with chicken mesh wire, non-metallic mesh such as polymeric mesh was used in the earlier research work. newlineIn this study, an attempt is made to replace the chicken mesh wire with warp knitted fabrics in the ferrocement composites. The variables used in the study are the type of synthetic filament, type of structure, filament thickness and mesh size. newline