Materials Today: Proceedings 22 (2020) 836–842

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Flowable nano SiO2 based cementitious mortar for ferrocement jacketed

column
J. Revathy ⇑, P. Gajalakshmi, M. Aseem Ahmed
Department of Civil Engineering, B. S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Institute of Science & Technology, Chennai, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Retrofitting of structures has become an inevitable in the construction activity. It is necessary to improve
Received 11 October 2019 the load carrying capacity of the damaged structural members and it could be achieved by strengthening
Received in revised form 29 October 2019 externally, through a jacketing technique. Ferrocement Jacketing is preferred as one of the acceptable and
Accepted 2 November 2019
viable way for strengthening of structural members. A laboratory experimental investigation was carried
Available online 29 November 2019
out to develop a rich and flowable nano silica based cementitious matrices which could be employed for
repair and retrofit the structures. An investigation on nano based cement composite was conducted to
Keywords:
obtain the strength and durability properties. Results indicated that the flowable nano silica cementitious
Cementitious matrices
Ferrocement column
mortar showed a significant increase in compressive strength in the range of 7.5–50% than that of the
Flowable control cement mortar. The splitting tensile strength of cementitious matrices increased from 2.28 to
Nano SiO2 based mortar 3.98 MPa. Nano silica with 3% showed a lowest rate of water absorption as compared to all other mortar
Retrofit specimens. From the obtained results, it is revealed that 3% of nano silica could be used as a flowable nano
SiO2 based mortar, as it showed a better performance both in strength and durability aspects.
Ferrocement jacketed columns has a higher load carrying capacity of about 40% with a higher axial dis-
placement of 95% as compared to the control column. A ductile mode of failure was observed in all the
ferrocement jacketed columns.
Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International
Conference on Materials Engineering and Characterization 2019.

1. Introduction thickness in the order of 10–25 mm, which comprises of rich

Reinforced concrete (RC) is considered to be one of the most
durable building materials under favorable conditions. However,
inadequate attention at various stages of construction, exposure
to aggressive environment may render concrete, prone to deterio-
ration. The exposure to salt and water results in structural damage
in the form of cracks and loss of reinforcing steel cross-section. This
damage leads to serious structural problems and requires expen-
sive rehabilitation. Therefore, the strengthening or rehabilitation
of damaged concrete structures necessitates by improving its load
carrying capacity and most importantly it should also perform well
in the durability aspects. One of the ways to strengthen the dam-
aged concrete structure could be achieved by jacketing the struc-
ture. Ferrocement Jacketing is preferred as one of the acceptable
and viable way for strengthening of structural members. As per
ACI committee, Ferrocement is a thin construction element with
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: revathyj@crescent.education (J. Revathy).
cement mortar and steel wire mesh as the main reinforcing mate-
rial for confinement of the structural elements [1].
Several researchers found that using ferrocement jacketing as a
feasible method for repair and retrofitting of structures. They have
been highlighted on the potential exploitation of ferrocement com-
posites for rehabilitation of structural elements such as slabs [2,3],
beams [4,5], columns [6,7] and beam-column joint [8,9]. In the fer-
rocement laminated members, cement mortar plays a prime role
for the performance of entire system. Past research works were
focused on using fly ash, silica fume, metakaolin, ground granu-
lated blast furnace slag as a flowable cement matrix [10,11] for
the application of ferrocement. A durable rich cement mortar
should be good enough to meet the various factors including
strength, corrosion resistance, acid attack resistance, elimination
of voids, flowability and reduction of cracks at micro level. There-
fore, a great care and attention is essential to choose the best com-
posite material for the application of ferrocement.
The development of utilizing nano materials initiated as an
innovative practice in the field of concrete technology [12,13]. In

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.11.020
2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Materials Engineering and Characterization 2019.