Modern Housing System using Ferrocement As Sustainable Construction Materials

By Wail Nourildean Al-Rifaie Professor of Civil Engineering Professor Emeritus, University of Tikrit, Iraq.

Summary The use of ferrocement in pre-fabricated buildings provides many advantages in terms of lightness of weight (since its thickness is usually between10 and 50mm), ease of handling, low labour cost in its production and a durable material requiring little maintenance. This would further lead to an eco-friendly low cost housing without any loss of structural integrity. Saving in cost is one of the several reasons for the popularity of ferrocement. It is recognized that the economics of ferrocement is dependent on several factors such as costs of raw materials and labour, and the relative cost of competitive materials. In this article a structural system for ferrocement building based on generic services facilities is introduced. Introduction There are more than 80 developing countries in the world suffering from housing shortage, resulting from population growth. In rural areas, houses should be built as economical as possible and at the same time should be durable and functional. Hence, It has become necessary to seek for structural building elements, which have the structural phenomena of prefabricated elements in terms of ease of handling, light, minimum maintenance and low cost. It is with these in mind, elements of a structural system are made from Ferrocement. Ferrocement has been developed mainly during the past thirty years and yet has reached a very advanced stage in technique and design. A considerable amount of laboratory testing research and prototype constructions have been completed at the Building and Construction Engineering Department of University of Technology, Iraq for the production of ferrocement members that would be used in the roof /floor/wall of building/housing. Ferrocement has a very high tensile strength to weight ratio and superior cracking behaviour in comparison to reinforced concrete. Hence, Ferrocement is an attractive material for construction of shell, folded plate, ribbed slab and housing components. The growing need for eco-housing is much-discussed subject. The great demands of electric power due to heating and air-conditioning systems require control to make maximum reduction of the electrical energy. Prefabricated ferrocement cavity walls present a series of possibilities for the solution of building construction at maximum reduction of the electrical energy. Ferrocement, 10-50 mm thick, is a type of thin reinforced concrete with great potential, made of cementsand mortar and reinforced with layers of fine wire meshes with skeletal reinforcement. Ferrocement is an excellent construction material due to its

mechanical properties, and low cost, and it is considered to possess a high cracking strength. Ferrocement is a suitable construction technology for the following reasons: 1. Ferrocement differs from conventional reinforced concrete in that there is a higher ratio of steel to cement mortar. By altering the mortar/steel ratio the ferrocement material exhibits properties superior to either steel or cement mortar separately. 2. Ferrocement resistance is given by the geometrically shape parts. 3. The constituent materials of ferrocement are easily available and are quite inexpensive, labour intensity and semi-skilled labour requirements make ferrocement the most promising alternative materials for housing. 4. The fabrication technique of ferrocement is quite easy and common. 5. Heavy plants and machinery are not required in the ferrocement construction. 6. In case of damage, it can be repaired easily.
Ferrocement as Sustainable Construction Materials: The low material cost, labor intensity and semi-skilled labor requirements make ferrocement is the most promising alternative materials for housing. The constituent materials of ferrocement are easily available and are quite inexpensive. The fabrication technique of ferrocement is quite easy and common people could be trained in a short time to learn the skill. Advantages of ferrocement as a construction material may be summarized as follow:

1. 2. 3. 4.

Very high quality control. Pre-Fabricated products. Easy production and installation. Shading devices to provide shading and day lighting to the building (use light weight and low cost environmental element). 5. Fast construction. 6. Manpower can be easily trained at site. 7. Improved structural performance. 8. Cost reduction, 15-50% cheaper than conventional techniques. 9. Less maintenance. 10. Reduction in dead weight, 50-75% lighter than conventional techniques. The adoption of ferrocement as an appropriate particularly suited for houses because of the following: 1. Basic raw materials are available. 2. The skills required for ferrocement construction are easily acquired. 3. Lower construction cost compared to traditional construction. 4. Easy to construct. 5. Lower maintenance cost than traditional material.

a. Impact Resistance of Ferrocement: Ferrocement is very adequate to resist the impact, due to its higher ability of absorbing impact energy as compared with the conventional reinforced concrete, and the damage is localized at the impact zone. Tests were carried out at the laboratory of Civil Engineering Department at the University of Nottingham, U.K. b. Rehabilitation/or Strengthening Technique by Ferrocement: It is concluded that strengthening of reinforced concrete element by using ferrocement technique is very effective in increasing the cracking, ultimate loads and increasing the impact resistance. Tests were carried out at the National Center of Construction Laboratory, Baghdad, Iraq. c. Fire Resistance: The ferrocement building components can withstand direct fire with a temperature values up to 756o C for a period of 2hours with no segregation in the surface of the elements facing the fire. Tests were carried out at ferrocement victory, Baghdad, Iraq. d) Blast protection: Blast protection for structures under direct or indirect threat from explosive hazards often requires retrofit solutions with minimal or temporary environmental impact whilst providing structural shielding from shock waves and shrapnel and spall fragments. These situations include structures under direct assault or in post-conflict areas where unexploded ordinance pose a continuing hazard. Ferrocement panelling provides a modular and effective passive solution. The incorporation of continuous steel wire reinforcement lends a pseudo-ductility under impact loading which boost structural integrity compared with conventional reinforced concrete and concentrates damage at the impact zone. Splinter penetration is minimal through the thickness of such slabs and short range proving tests with 7.62mm rounds have demonstrated excellent damage tolerance for relatively low density installations.

Rear panel after complete testing, only full penetration of both sand and fill done when SPA and concentrated fire was used.

120 rounds fired across all panels, filled and unfilled. Front panel, concentration of rounds onto the filled panels, no cracking to the front or rear panels

Housing System A structural system (Copyright The University of Nottingham, U.K.) for ferrocement construction based on generic services facilities is introduced. The construction concepts for low cost, low impact housing and shelters as shown in Figure 1 lend themselves readily to rapid delivery and assembly of flexible accommodation where designs can be adapted to meet local requirements for both structural performance and thermal comfort as shown in the figure. The structural part of house consists of three basic components; the base, walls, and roof. An integral framing concept as shown in plate 1 allows for overall above-ground structural integrity which considerably exceeds that of traditional methods and this minimizes the need for ground works in all. The membrane construction also enables new concepts in passive downdraught cooling to be explored where airways are incorporated within structural features as wall cavities.

Base Plate (1)

Walls during fixing

Figure (1) Potential applications of the system include sustainable solutions for disaster relief and secure accommodation. The major advantage of a ferrocement construction system over current construction methods is mainly due to the reduction in structural dead load. Building system must not only cope with strengths and flexibility requirements, but the insulation value is of high importance. In summer heat must be kept outside as much as possible. The structural system for ferrocement construction based on generic services facilities and insulating these structures involves the application of insulation material by means of cavity wall construction which consists of two leaves (sides) of ferrocement separated by a wide space and insulation material is used through a cavity wall and filling the air space with a porous material. Test was carried out on a ferrocement cavity wall panel with insulation panel placed between the two leaves of the wall panel as shown in Plate (2). The obtained results showed Plate (2) that cavity wall construction consists of two leaves (sides) of ferrocement, separated by air space and the insulation panel positioned as shown in the figure gives a very good solution for insulation as shown in Plate (3), (air is still the actual insulator), consequently reducing the demand to electrical energy. Cavity wall insulation may also be used to

reduce heating/or cooling losses. In addition the space between the insulation and ferrocement panels may be filled with porous materials.

Front face

Rear face

Plate 3(a) Heating measurements of ferrocement panel representing the wall.

Lower face

Upper face

Plate 3(b) Heating measurements of ferrocement panel representing the roof.

The following photos show some of the projects executed in Iraq.

Two-bedroom house constructed in the year 2000

Kiosk that was constructed for the International Baghdad Exhibition in the year 2000.

Two-bedroom house constructed in 2001

Warehouse.

Two-bedroom house

Fifty three bus stops constructed in the centre of Baghdad

Studio

Benches

Mosque under construction

Building constructed in Feb. 2011 using the modern housing system.

Conclusion The prefabricated eco-housing/ or building system using precast ferrocement structural elements has been described in this article. References 1. IFS Committees 10, 2001Ferrocement Model Code, Building Code Recommendations for Ferrocement (IFS 10-01). 2. ACI Publication SP.61, 1979 FerrocementMaterials and Applications, pp 1-195. 3. ACI committee 549, 1980, Guide for the Design, Construction, and Repair of Ferrocement ACI Structural Journal, May. June, pp 325-351. 4. Shah, S.P., Namman, A. EandS.P.1971, Tensile Tests of Ferrocement, ACI Journal.68 (a), sep., pp 693-698 5. Namman, A.E. and Homrich, J.R., 1986, Flexural Design of Ferrocement: Computerized Evaluation and Design Aids Journal of Ferrocement, April, pp101-6. 6. Namman, A.E. and Homrich, J.R., 1986, Flexural Design of Ferrocement: Computerized Evaluation and Design Aids Journal of Ferrocement, April, pp101-117. 7. Mansur, M.A. and Ong, K.G.G., 1987 Shear Strength of Ferrocement beams ACI Journal Structural Journal, Jan Feb pp 10-27 8. Lan Baugh, and Bowen, G.L, 1976, Corrosion in Ferrocement, the Journal of Ferrocement Vol. 5, No. 4, pp 13-40. 9. ACI Committee 549, 1988 Stateofthe Art Report on Ferrocement, ACI Manual of Concrete Practice, part 5. 10. Shah, S.P, Key, W.H, 1972, Impact Resistance of Ferrocement, Journal of the Structural division proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineering, Jan. pp 111-123. 11. Al-Rifaie, W.N.and Trikha, D.N., Experimental Investigation of Secondary Strength of Ferrocement Reinforced With Hexagonal Mesh. Journal of Ferrocement, Vol. 17, No. 3, July 1987. 12. Al-Rifaie, W.N.and Trikha, D.N., Effect of Arrangement and Orientation of Hexagonal Mesh of the Behaviour of Tow-Way Ferrocement Slabs. Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Ferrocement, 1988, India, Journal of Ferrocement, Volume 20, No.3, 1990. 13. Al-Rifaie, W.N.and Trikha, D.N., Assessment of Quality of Ferrocement Structures By Ultra Sonic Test. Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Ferrocement, 1988, India. 14. Al-Rifaie, W.N. and Al-Lami, M.S., Structural Behaviour of Ferrocement Exposed To Oil. Journal of Engineering and Technology, University Of Technology, Vol. 19, No.2nd 2000 Iraq. 15. Al-Rifaie, W.N. and Nimnim, H.T., An Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of the Behaviour of Ferrocement Box-Beams Journal of Ferrocement: Vol. 31, No. 1, January 2001. 16. Al-Rifaie, W.N.and Mahmood, K.,Ferrocement-Brick Composite Columns. Journal of Ferrocement Vol.30, No, 1 January 2000. 17. Al-Rifaie, W.N.and Mahmood, K.,Ferrocement-Brick Composite Walls. Proceedings of Jordan Second Civil Engineering Conference, Amman - Jordan, 1999.

18. Al-Rifaie, W.N.,The Behaviour of Two-Way Ferrocement Slabs under Impact Loads. Proceedings of the Sixth Arab Conference in Structural Engineering, 1995. 19. Al-Rifaie, W.N. Ferrocement Wall: Penetration Testing. The Eighth International Symposium and Workshop on Ferrocement and Thin Reinforced Cement Composites, 68 February, 2006, Bangkok, Thailand. 20. Zaki, M. and Al-Rifaie, W.N. ,Design Of Ferrocement in Flexure. , Journal of Engineering and Technology, University Of Technology, Vol 18, No. 4, Iraq 1999. 21. Al-Rifaie, W.N.and Mahmood, N.S,Finite Element Method for Non-Linear Analysis of Ferrocement Slabs and Box-Beams. Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on Ferrocement and Thin Reinforced Cement Composites (FERRO-7), Singapore, 2001. 22. Al-Rifaie, W.N.and Mahmood, N.S,Computational Model for Non-linear Analysis of Ferrocement Shells Using F.E.M. Journal of Ferrocement, Vol. 30, No. 1, January 2000. 23. Al-Rifaie, W.N.and Majeed, A., Structural Behaviour of Thin Ferrocement One-Way Bending Elements. Journal of Ferrocement, Volume 24, No. 2, 1994. 24. Al-Rifaie, W.N.and Abdul-Aziz, A., Thin Ferrocement Bearing Walls. Journal of Ferrocement, Volume 25, No.3, 1995. 25. Al-Rifaie, W.N.and Al-Hmedawi, A., Structural Behaviour of Ferrocement Shells Roofs. Journal of Ferrocement, Vol. 30, No. 1, Jan. 2000. 26. Al-Rifaie, W.N.and Mnasrah, A. Connection for Segmental Ferrocement Semi-Cylindrical Shells as a Roofing System. Journal of Ferrocement, Vol. 31, No.1, January 2001. 27. Al-Rifaie, W.N.and Kalaf, S.Experimental Investigation of Long-Span Roofing System. Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on Ferrocement and Thin Reinforced Cement Composites (FERRO-7), Singapore, 2001.

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