Effect of ferrocement infill on the strength and behavior of RCC frames under reverse cyclic loading

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the strength and behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) frames with ferrocement infills. For this purpose, 1/4th scaled down model of one bay-three story frames were tested under reverse cyclic lateral loading. The ferrocement infill consists of hexagonal wire mesh with different values of volume fraction of mesh reinforcement viz. 0.20%, 0.30% and 0.40%. The strength and behavior of frames with ferrocement infill were compared with frame without infill. The experimental results indicated that the strength, stiffness, energy dissipation capacity and ductility of frames with ferrocement infill were significantly improved when compared with the bare frame. However, the increase in the volume fraction of hexagonal wire mesh of ferrocement infill showed only a marginal improvement in the strength and behavior of the infilled frame.