ABSTRACT
A study on the fatigue behaviour of wiremesh reinforced ferrocement in a corrosive environment has been carried out through experimental work. Composites were loaded to the serviceability limit of 207-N/mm2 stress in the outermost reinforcement after 28 days of normal curing. With the load sustained, they were stored in the environment chambers for various durations before being tested for static and fatigue flexure.
P-S-N relationships are established for the wire and the ferrocement composites. At 5% probability of failure, the fatigue resistance of the composites which had been subjected to sustained loading in the environment chamber of up to three months duration (1350 cycles of exposure) was found to be lower than that of the 28 days old control specimens. Whereas, composites with duration of seven months (3150 cycles of exposure) showed higher fatigue endurance than the control specimens for maximum stress level of 68% or lower. In contrast to the results given in the Report of the ACI Committee 549, the fatigue life of wire in air was found to be lower than that in ferrocement composites. Besides, an empirical formula is proposed to depict the relationships for the composites investigated, between crack width, cycle ratio and fatigue life.
