Performance of Ferrocement Eco-Housing System under Direct Fire

The use of ferrocement in pre-fabricated buildings provides many advantages in terms of lightness of weight (since its thickness is usually between 10 and 50 mm), 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. A structural system based on generic services facilities is introduced by Al-Rifaie and prefabricated ferrocement cavity walls/ and roofs are adopted within the proposed system. The performance of the system under direct fire is discussed in the present work by means of erecting a full scale ferrocement room and fire was burnt inside the room for a period of 2½ hours with stand temperature up to 756°C. The behaviour of ferrocement elements was monitored by reading the deflection and temperature for the roof at middle and two thirds points and by observing the crack patterns and spalling of the elements.