An Experimental Study of Geogrid in Ferrocement Panels

The construction industry is seeing a boom as the infrastructure development has increased too many folds.
The existing materials used in construction, pollute the environment as well as leads to global warming. The
needs of innovation in construction to necessitate the future requirements make us to revolutionize the
conventional system. One such conventional system we overviewed is FERROCEMENT CONSTRUCTION.
Definition of ferrocement by ACI Committee 549, 1988
“Ferrocement is a form of reinforced concrete using closely spaced multiple layers of mesh and /or small
diameter rods completely encapsulated in mortar. The most common type of mesh used is steel mesh. Other
materials such as selected organic, natural or synthetic fibers may be combined with metallic mesh.”
It is very well known that one ton of cement produces one ton of CO2. The increase in percentage of CO2
results in global warming and for this reason the manufacture of cement must be minimized. The only
component which can partially replace the cement is flyash. Flyash is one of the residues from thermal power
plant, which when partially replaced with cement can be used as a construction material.The rise in cost of
river sand used as fine aggregate in concrete have increased the cost of construction significantly in the past
few decades. The increase in the cost of river sand is due to dwindling natural resources as well as the
concern to prevent further environmental degradation. These problems have led to the search for alternative
materials for fine aggregates that are eco-friendly besides being inexpensive. The quarry dust, which is
available abundantly from crusher units at a low cost in many areas, provides a viable alternative for river
sand in concrete.
Quarry dust being inexpensive and ecofriendly is been proposed for partially replacing sand.
Steel mesh provided in the ferrocement construction has a serious disadvantage whenever the corrosion
property is concerned. So in order to compensate the strength and durability of ferrocement panels, present
study has been made to replace steel mesh with HDPE – geogrid mesh for different proportions of cement
and flyash and partial replacement of sand with quarry dust. An optimum proportion has been arrived taking
into account the social responsibility to bring out the product that could be economic, efficient and ecofriendly