FLEXURAL BEHAVIOUR OF POZZOLANIC (PEA NUT SHELL ASH) FIBRE REINFORCED FERROCEMENT

Abstract

Now a days due to increase of population more infrastructure has to provide to meet the needs of the public. For this many civil engineering constructions throughout the globe is occur and the usage of OPC is very large and so the raw material for OPC becoming scarce. Because of this reason in the present days the usage of Pozzollanic cement has gained momentum. This paper presents a brief study on the flexural behaviour of fibre reinforced ferrocement elements with partial replacement of cement by pozzollanic material ike pea nut shell ash. Nearly 360 specimens were cast and tested with the variables such as different percentages of replacement of cement by pozzolanic material addition such as pea nut shell ash addition, different percentages of steel fibre, number of wire mesh layers and different span to depth ratios (a/d) etc,. From the results it is observed that with the increase in percentage of fibres and PNSA the compressive strength of mortar, first crack load, ultimate load in flexure, flexural stress at first crack load, flexural stress at ultimate load and energy absorption increase up to certain extent and afterwards get decreased. Also the above strength parameters are found to increase with number of wire mesh layers. More so the above strengths are found to decrease with the increase in a/d ratio except the flexural stresses at first crack load and ultimate load. Besides the paper presents the behaviour of load – deflection variation and crack pattern for number of variables studied. Finally an analytical model has been proposed for Mcr and Mu with the inclusion of the most of the variables used in the present investigation.