Durability of Polymer and Fly Ash Modified Ferro Cement Elements

Ferro cement is a highly versatile form of composite materials made of cement mortar and layers of wire mesh. The scope of this paper is to determine and compare the durability of polymer-modified Ferro cement with fly ash modified ferro cement elements. To study the permeability of cement mortar, 12 cylinders of height 100 mm and diameter 50 mm were cast. Further to study the corrosion performance of mesh reinforcement, 36 prisms of size 300 mm long, 50 mm width and 25 mm thickness were cast by varying the number of layers of mesh. To accelerate corrosion, impressed current voltage test was conducted and the corrosion process was monitored continuously. The corrosion performance in conventional ferro cement is compared with that of polymer Ferro cement and fly ash modified Ferro cement. From the results, the corrosion inhibiting property of fly ash and polymer Ferro cement is remarkably improved with an increase from 0% to 30% of fly ash, 0% to 12.5% of polymer and decrease with specific surface of reinforcement. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.