Structural Behavior of Ferrocement-Autoclave Block Composite Slab

Recently, different types of composite floor slabs have been developed and used in the construction industry worldwide. These floor slabs are developed to cater for the shortcomings that are observed in the existing floor slabs. Some of these shortcomings are: long construction time, heavy weight and, bad thermal and sound barrier. All these shortcomings are dependant on the heavy equipment on job site and on formwork and the jointing problems. Ferrocement-Brick composite slab is one of the recent developments in composite slab systems. The composite is a semi-precast floor slab system which consists of an inverted ribbed ferrocement layer interlocked with bricks used in situ concrete ribs. Aerated autoclaved concrete (AAC) blocks are used, instead of bricks, in a ferrocement-brick composite. The blocks provides a very light weight material ( =6 kN/m3), effective thermal insulation and sound barrier compared to normal bricks. Using the aerated autoclaved concrete block will lead to 30% reduction in the weight of the slab compared to the reinforced concrete slab. This study aims at investigating the structural behaviour of ferrocement-AAC block composite floor slab under flexural loading focusing on the effect of different AAC block layouts in the composite slab on the structural performance of the composite slab. Nine full-scale ferrocement-block composite slabs of different block layouts are cast and tested experimentally under two-point loads. In addition, three ferrocement layers are tested to identify their capabilities to carry the construction loads. The structural performance of the composite slabs is investigated in terms of their deformation and ductility characteristics, cracking characteristics, strain distribution and failure mechanism. The AAC block layouts play a significant role in the structural behaviour of the ferrocement-AAC block composite slab. It is also concluded that the interlocking mechanism is capable of connecting the two layers and the slab behaved as a full composite slab. The system can sustain the required design load for the residential building.

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