Effect of Adding Polypropylene Fibres to Flexural Strength of Ferrocement
Fathoni Usman (a*), Syazwan Shaharuddin (a), Noor Mahmudah (b) and Monita Olivia (c)
(a) Institute of Energy Infrastructure, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Kajang 43000, Selangor, Malaysia
*fathoni[at]uniten.edu.my
(b) Department of Civil Engineering, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Bantul 55183, Indonesia
(c) Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Riau, Pekanbaru 28293, Indonesia.
Abstract
The development of a lightweight structure is being a growing trend in the construction industry all over the world. Ferrocement, a thin-shell concrete reinforced with layers of continuous wire mesh, had seen as an alternative material for this type of construction. However, due to the small thickness and large surface area of the ferrocement, potential of cracks due to drying shrinkage is high. In this study, Polypropylene fibres (PPF) was added to ferrocement mortar as secondary reinforcement. This paper presents the effect of adding PPF to the flexural strength of ferrocement. It was found that under flexural test, 66.6% of the variation in flexural strength of ferrocement was influenced by volume fraction, Vr; 31.4% by percentage of PPF, Pf and 2% by the interaction of Pf and Vr.
Keywords: Ferrocement; Polypropylene Fibers; Flexural Strength
Topic: International Symposium of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering