Flexural behaviour of ferrocement roof panels

This paper presents the experimental results of nine roof panels made of Ferrocement. Two types of channel sections and one type of box section were tested. All panels were 2m long, 470mm wide and 20mm thick. Channel type A had side edge beams 95mm deep and channel type B had side edge beams 50mm deep. The depth of the box section was 95mm. Thin hexagonal wire mesh was used as reinforcement. The number of wire mesh layers was varied between two to six. The wires were impregnated midway through the thickness of the panels. The panels were tested for bending moment with simple supports. The main variables studied were the number of wire mesh layers, the cross sectional shape of the panel and the depth of edge beam. Tests revealed that all panels showed acceptable strength for roofing systems. The increase in the number of wire mesh layers leads to an increase in the flexural strength. The box section showed strength similar to that of the channel section with 95mm edge beam. The channels with 50mm deep edge beams showed strength much less than the ones with 95mm edge beam and box section.