COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE BEHAVIOR OF MODIFIED FERROCEMENT WRAPPED COLUMNS AND CFRP WRAPPED COLUMNS

Ferro cement is a type of thin wall reinforced concrete commonly constructed of hydraulic cement mortar reinforced with closely spaced layers of continuous and relatively small size wire mesh. The mesh may be made of metallic or other suitable materials. The fineness of the mortar matrix and its composition should be compatible with the mesh and armature systems it is meant to encapsulate. The matrix may contain discontinuous fibers. The results of an experimental study on the increase in the load carrying capacity of modified ferro cement wrapped columns and Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer sheet wrapped columns. The modified ferro cement wrapping reinforced with 2 layers of welded steel meshes is used. Six short RCC square columns including four strengthened columns (Two with modified ferro cement and two with2 layers of CFRP) were tested. The specimens were subjected to axial compressive load till failure. The results indicated that the increase in load carrying capacity of Column wrapped with modified ferrocement is about 89.80% over control specimen and that of column wrapped with CFRP sheet is about 74.28% over control specimen. Hence it is concluded that modified ferro cement jackets can be effectively used for strengthening of columns.