Flexural characteristics of ferrocement plates casted with various steel wire mesh specifications.

On-site construction is being reduced these days to accomplish quick and time-saving building. In this, composite material is crucial. Performance-wise, cement-based composites outperform traditional RCC and PCC. A composite material using mortar and wire mesh for construction is Ferro cement. In this research ferrocement plates built up with Five types of meshes. The main aim of research was to inspect the effect of distinctive types of mesh as reinforcement in mortar specimen subjected to bending and select best one for future work. There are two factors of square welded mesh I.e., Diameterof wire mesh and opening of wire mesh respectively. Hence research go in two directions. In 1st case kept thickness of wire mesh constant and vary c/c opening. For this wire meshof specification 1.6mm diameter and (15 x 15) mm, (20 x 20) mm,(25x25) mm c/c opening were used respectively. In 2nd case kept opening constant and vary diameter of wire mesh. For this wire mesh of specification 15mm x 15mm opening and 1.2mm, 1.4mm,1.6mm diameter were used respectively. Total 15 numbers of specimen, 3 of each five types of size (200 x 400 x 18) mm were casted with 1:3 mix proportion mortar and 0.45 w/c ratio and tested under two-point loading systems on UTM after curing period of 28 days. The results were measured using TML strain gauge having 120-ohm resistance and 60mm gauge length. Findings demonstrate that specimens reinforced with 1.6 mm diameter and (20 x 20) mm c/c opening mesh have stronger flexural strength than the other four types of meshes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]