Modern Housing System using Ferrocement As Sustainable

Construction Materials
By
Wail Nourildean Al-Rifaie
Professor of Civil Engineering
Professor Emeritus, University of Tikrit, Iraq.

Summary
The use of ferrocement in pre-fabricated buildings provides many advantages in terms of
lightness of weight (since its thickness is usually between10 and 50mm), ease of
handling, low labour cost in its production and a durable material requiring little
maintenance. This would further lead to an eco-friendly low cost housing without any
loss of structural integrity. Saving in cost is one of the several reasons for the popularity
of ferrocement. It is recognized that the economics of ferrocement is dependent on
several factors such as costs of raw materials and labour, and the relative cost of
competitive materials. In this article a structural system for ferrocement building based
on generic services facilities is introduced.
Introduction
There are more than 80 developing countries in the world suffering from housing
shortage, resulting from population growth. In rural areas, houses should be built as
economical as possible and at the same time should be durable and functional. Hence, It
has become necessary to seek for structural building elements, which have the structural
phenomena of prefabricated elements in terms of ease of handling, light, minimum
maintenance and low cost. It is with these in mind, elements of a structural system are
made from Ferrocement.
Ferrocement has been developed mainly during the past thirty years and yet has reached a
very advanced stage in technique and design. A considerable amount of laboratory
testing research and prototype constructions have been completed at the Building and
Construction Engineering Department of University of Technology, Iraq for the
production of ferrocement members that would be used in the roof /floor/wall of
building/housing.
Ferrocement has a very high tensile strength to weight ratio and superior cracking
behaviour in comparison to reinforced concrete. Hence, Ferrocement is an attractive
material for construction of shell, folded plate, ribbed slab and housing components. The
growing need for eco-housing is much-discussed subject. The great demands of electric
power due to heating and air-conditioning systems require control to make maximum
reduction of the electrical energy. Prefabricated ferrocement cavity walls present a series
of possibilities for the solution of building construction at maximum reduction of the
electrical energy.
Ferrocement, 10-50 mm thick, is a type of thin reinforced concrete with great potential,
made of cementsand mortar and reinforced with layers of fine wire meshes with
skeletal reinforcement. Ferrocement is an excellent construction material due to its

mechanical properties, and low cost, and it is considered to possess a high cracking
strength.
Ferrocement is a suitable construction technology for the following reasons:
1. Ferrocement differs from conventional reinforced concrete in that there is a higher
ratio of steel to cement mortar. By altering the mortar/steel ratio the ferrocement
material exhibits properties superior to either steel or cement mortar separately.
2. Ferrocement resistance is given by the geometrically shape parts.
3. The constituent materials of ferrocement are easily available and are quite
inexpensive, labour intensity and semi-skilled labour requirements make
ferrocement the most promising alternative materials for housing.
4. The fabrication technique of ferrocement is quite easy and common.
5. Heavy plants and machinery are not required in the ferrocement construction.
6. In case of damage, it can be repaired easily.
Ferrocement as Sustainable Construction Materials:
The low material cost, labor intensity and semi-skilled labor requirements make
ferrocement is the most promising alternative materials for housing. The constituent
materials of ferrocement are easily available and are quite inexpensive. The fabrication
technique of ferrocement is quite easy and common people could be trained in a short
time to learn the skill. Advantages of ferrocement as a construction material may be
summarized as follow:

1.
2.
3.
4.

Very high quality control.

Pre-Fabricated products.
Easy production and installation.
Shading devices to provide shading and day lighting to the building (use light
weight and low cost environmental element).
5. Fast construction.
6. Manpower can be easily trained at site.
7. Improved structural performance.
8. Cost reduction, 15-50% cheaper than conventional techniques.
9. Less maintenance.
10. Reduction in dead weight, 50-75% lighter than conventional techniques.
The adoption of ferrocement as an appropriate particularly suited for houses because of
the following:
1. Basic raw materials are available.
2. The skills required for ferrocement construction are easily acquired.
3. Lower construction cost compared to traditional construction.
4. Easy to construct.
5. Lower maintenance cost than traditional material.

a. Impact Resistance of Ferrocement: Ferrocement is very adequate to resist the

impact, due to its higher ability
of absorbing impact energy as
compared with the conventional
reinforced concrete, and the
damage is localized at the impact
zone. Tests were carried out at
the
laboratory
of
Civil
Engineering Department at the University of Nottingham, U.K.
b. Rehabilitation/or Strengthening Technique by
Ferrocement: It is concluded that strengthening of
reinforced concrete element by using ferrocement
technique is very effective in increasing the
cracking, ultimate loads and increasing the impact
resistance. Tests were carried out at the National
Center of Construction Laboratory, Baghdad, Iraq.
c. Fire Resistance:
The
ferrocement
building components
can withstand direct
fire
with
a
temperature values up
to 756o C for a period
of 2hours with no
segregation in the surface of the elements facing the fire. Tests were carried out at
ferrocement victory, Baghdad, Iraq.
d) Blast protection: Blast protection for structures under direct or indirect threat from
explosive hazards often requires retrofit solutions with minimal or temporary
environmental impact whilst providing structural shielding from shock waves and
shrapnel and spall fragments. These situations include structures under direct assault or in
post-conflict areas where unexploded ordinance pose a continuing hazard.
Ferrocement panelling provides a modular and effective passive solution. The
incorporation of continuous steel wire reinforcement lends a pseudo-ductility under
impact loading which boost structural integrity compared with conventional reinforced
concrete and concentrates damage at the impact zone. Splinter penetration is minimal
through the thickness of such slabs and short range proving tests with 7.62mm rounds
have demonstrated excellent damage tolerance for relatively low density installations.

Rear panel after complete testing,

only full penetration of both sand
and fill done when SPA and
concentrated fire was used.

120 rounds fired across all panels,

filled and unfilled.
Front panel, concentration of
rounds onto the filled panels, no
cracking to the front or rear
panels

Housing System
A structural system (Copyright The University of Nottingham, U.K.) for ferrocement
construction based on generic services facilities is introduced.
The construction concepts for low cost, low impact housing and shelters as shown in
Figure 1 lend themselves readily to rapid delivery and assembly of flexible
accommodation where designs can be adapted to meet local requirements for both
structural performance and thermal comfort as shown in the figure. The structural part of
house consists of three basic components; the base, walls, and roof. An integral framing
concept as shown in plate 1 allows for overall above-ground structural integrity which
considerably exceeds that of traditional methods and this minimizes the need for ground
works in all. The membrane construction also enables new concepts in passive
downdraught cooling to be explored where airways are incorporated within structural
features as wall cavities.

Base

Walls during fixing

Plate (1)

Figure (1)
Potential applications of the system include sustainable solutions for disaster relief and
secure accommodation. The major advantage of a ferrocement construction system over
current construction methods is mainly due to the reduction in structural dead load.
Building system must not only cope with
strengths and flexibility requirements, but the
insulation value is of high importance. In summer
heat must be kept outside as much as possible.
The
structural
system
for
ferrocement
construction based on generic services facilities
and insulating these structures involves the
application of insulation material by means of
cavity wall construction which consists of two
leaves (sides) of ferrocement separated by a wide
space and insulation material is used through a
cavity wall and filling the air space with a porous
material. Test was carried out on a ferrocement
cavity wall panel with insulation panel placed
between the two leaves of the wall panel as
shown in Plate (2). The obtained results showed
Plate (2)
that cavity wall construction consists of two leaves (sides) of ferrocement, separated by
air space and the insulation panel positioned as shown in the figure gives a very good
solution for insulation as shown in Plate (3), (air is still the actual insulator), consequently
reducing the demand to electrical energy. Cavity wall insulation may also be used to

reduce heating/or cooling losses. In addition the space between the insulation and
ferrocement panels may be filled with porous materials.

Front face

Rear face

Plate 3(a) Heating measurements of ferrocement panel representing the wall.

Lower face

Upper face

Plate 3(b) Heating measurements of ferrocement panel representing the roof.

The following photos show some of the projects executed in Iraq.

Two-bedroom house constructed

in the year 2000

Kiosk that was constructed for the

International Baghdad Exhibition in the
year 2000.

Two-bedroom house constructed in 2001

Warehouse.

Fifty three bus stops constructed in the

centre of Baghdad

Two-bedroom house

Studio

Benches

Mosque under construction

Building constructed in Feb. 2011 using the modern housing system.

Conclusion
The prefabricated eco-housing/ or building system using precast ferrocement structural
elements has been described in this article.
References
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