AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF FERROCEMENT ENCASED CONCRETE COLUMNS

Abstract

Ferrocement encased concrete columns are used for prefabrication, repair/retrofitting and for insitu columns. Encasement of column end zone can be used to produce plastic hinges for seismic retrofitting of columns. The presence of mesh reinforcement in encased columns confines the core concrete, thereby increasing the strength and ductility. Research literature contains reports on both theoretical as well as experimental investigations of such columns. However, the experimental investigations do not cover all parameters exhaustively. The purpose of this work is to experimentally test ferrocement encased short columns to supplement available results and to verify theoretical formulations. For this 72 short cylindrical and prismatic specimens were cast and tested in axial compression, cyclic loading, eccentric loading and vibratory loading. Pulse velocity measurements were also taken to study the effect of mesh quantity on internal microcracking of specimens. The results verify the theoretical formulation and provide better understanding of behaviour of such columns.