Ferro Cement Chajja Wok

Structural Repairs

Ferro Cement Chajja Wok

Ferrocement is a construction material, especially reinforced cement concrete(RCC), comprising cement mortar and wire meshes. Ferrocement is widely used in the construction industry due to its low self-weight and because it does not need skilled workers and standard frameworks.

Ferrocement was first developed in 1940 by Italian architect P.L.Nervi. Its constituents are manufactured with the help of a proper machinery setup, and the time required to execute a project based on ferrocement is relatively less. It ensures the quality of structures built using ferrocement. With time, ferrocement in construction has become widespread, especially in the last twenty years.

Engineering properties of Ferrocement

Ferrocement has high fracture resistance, tensile strength, flexural strength, toughness, impact resistance and fatigue resistance. It is a thin-wall type of reinforced concrete that includes best cement mortar layered with continuous and comparatively small diameter mesh.

Ferrocement structures can withstand large strains around mesh reinforcements. The amount of strain capacity of the ferrocement structure depends on the distribution and subdivision of the mesh reinforcement throughout the concrete mass.

The dimensions of the wire mesh used in ferrocement usually range from 0.5mm to 1mm in diameter, spaced at intervals ranging from 5mm to 25mm in the concrete volume. The amount of mesh ranges from 1% to 8% of the total volume of the structure, and the thickness of the ferrocement section ranges from 10mm – 40mm. The cover for the outermost wire layers ranges from 1.5mm to 2mm.