Perspectives in Science (2016) 8, 673—676

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Self-flowing mortar for ferrocement in

strengthening applications夽
Shamir Sakir a,b, S.N. Raman a,c,∗, A.B.M.A. Kaish a, A.A. Mutalib b

a
Sustainable Construction Materials and Building Systems (SUCOMBS) Research Group, Faculty of
Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
b
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi,
Selangor, Malaysia
c
Department of Architecture, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

Received 18 February 2016; accepted 9 June 2016

Available online 4 July 2016

KEYWORDS Summary Ferrocement technology is becoming more and more important nowadays for
Columns; strengthening and retrofitting of concrete structures mainly due to its inherent strength prop-
Ferrocement; erties. However, its labour intensive nature makes it undesirable for rapid strengthening works.
Jacketing; In narrow spaces, strengthening with conventional ferrocement is very critical and also time
Strengthening; consuming. Self-flowing mortar (SFM) could be used with this technology to overcome these
Self-flowing mortar limitations. This article discusses the applicability of SFM in ferrocement technology. The aim
(SFM) of this study is to summarize available knowledge on SFM to make it feasible for optimization
in different industrial applications.
© 2016 Published by Elsevier GmbH. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Introduction placement a challenge. Another method is by plastering

Ferrocement is a thin-shell mortar system reinforced with
single or multiple layers of wire mesh (Kaish et al., 2012,
2016). In most cases of ferrocement construction, mortar
is placed by hand-trowelling, which makes standardized
夽 This article belongs to the special issue on Engineering and Mate-
rial Sciences.
∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Architecture, Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel.: +60 3 8911 8403; fax: +60 3 8911 8302.
E-mail address: snraman@gmail.com (S.N. Raman).
the wire mesh with cement mortar manually in several
stages that makes it labour intensive. Therefore, the qual-
ity of the end product becomes non-uniform and at the
same time it become both time and labour consuming. Self-
flowing mortar (SFM) can easily eliminate these problems.
Another advantage of SFM is that the time and manpower
required to place large sections is considerably reduced.
This type of mortar mix also reduces the chance of void for-
mation caused by the bad workmanship and ensures proper
compaction (Hassan et al., 2014). Preparing a self-flowing
mortar mix without compromising its strength properties
is a challenge, as the rheological properties often con-
tradict with the mechanical properties. Low viscosity and

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pisc.2016.06.055
2213-0209/© 2016 Published by Elsevier GmbH. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
674
Figure 1 Confinement of jacketed (a) cylindrical and (b) square column (Kaish et al., 2012).
particle homogeneity are required for the adequate fluid-
ity of fresh mix. Using superplasticizer and addition of some
specific filler materials improves the flowability but often
decrease strength properties. An optimization between
fluidity and strength is required. This study discusses ferro-
cement strengthening mechanism and applicability of SFM
in ferrocement for strengthening applications. The study
also focuses about the principle, raw materials, prepara-
tion techniques and recent developments of SFM, which are
compatible with ferrocement technology.
Ferrocement strengthening mechanism
Under compression, when the core concrete undergoes lat-
eral bulging, the external ferrocement jacket provides a
Figure 2 Ferrocement jacketing with (a) extra reinforcement at corners; (b) rounded corners; and (c) shear keys (Kaish et al.,
2016).
S. Sakir et al.
passive confinement. The bulging property of the core and
the stiffness of confining jacket dictate the overall strength-
ening mechanism. In case of a circular RC column, the
concrete core is uniformly confined by the external jack-
eting, while rectangular and square columns behave in a
different way, as shown in Fig. 1. Stress concentration occurs
at corners and the middle zone of each column face remains
mostly ineffective in resisting lateral bulging pressure due to
an arching action (Fig. 1). In short, uniform jacketing cannot
provide uniform confinement to rectangular and square sec-
tions. Kaish et al. (2012, 2016) have compared the effects
of extra reinforcement at corners, rounded corners and
shear key at the middle zone (as shown in Fig. 2) to over-
come this drawback. All three techniques were successful to
overcome the fundamental problem of square/rectangular
ferrocement jacketing system.
SFM for ferrocement in strengthening applications
Self-flowing mortar for ferrocement
SFM is a mortar mixture which is able to completely fill
any area inside the formwork and consolidate without any
kind of compaction or mechanical vibration. The highly
fluid nature of SFM makes it suitable for placing in difficult
conditions, like narrow spaces and in sections with con-
gested reinforcement. Use of SFM can also help minimize
hearing-related damages on the worksite that are induced
by mechanical vibration.
Factors influencing performance of
self-flowing mortar
Ferrocement jacket restrains lateral expansion of core con-
crete under axial compression. Failure starts by forming
cracks in external jacket. Therefore, the performance of
jacketing system mostly depends on the strength of the
ferrocement jacket. On the other hand, workability and
installation quality depend on mortar flow-ability. In recent
time, many researchers have tried to improve both proper-
ties, which are discussed subsequently in this article.
Effect on flow-ability
Binder
Generally an increase in binder ratio increases flowability
(Hassan et al., 2014). Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) is the
most common binding material. In recent years, many poz-
zolanic materials like, fly ash (Shannag and Mourad, 2012;
Memon et al., 2007), silica fume (Shannag and Mourad,
2012), palm oil fuel ash (Memon et al., 2007), pulverized
burnt clay (Hassan et al., 2014), rice husk ash, etc., were
tested as partial replacement of OPC. Because of relatively
smooth surface and spherical shape, fly ash adds to the flu-
idity (Khotbehsara et al., 2015). Effect of silica fume is not
that prominent. BET surface area of palm oil fuel ash is four
times of OPC and of pulverized burnt clay is half of OPC.
Therefore, replacing OPC by palm oil fuel ash decreases
workability of the mix, whereas pulverized burnt clay shows
opposite effect. Having angular particles, rice husk ash has a
negative influence on flowability (Hassan et al., 2014). The
addition of nanoparticles (CuO, SiO2 and TiO2 ) in the mix
gives a rise in specific surface and lessens free water, which
causes a drop in fluidity (Khotbehsara et al., 2015; Rao et al.,
2015).
Superplasticizer
Superplasticizer reduces water requirement for a constant
workability. The optimum dose of superplasticizer depends
on other components of the mix. A higher dose than the
optimum may cause bleeding in most cases (Hassan et al.,
2014).
Filler matter
Sand is the most common filler in mortar. It reduces fluid
nature of the fresh mix and also hinders the effectiveness
of superplasticizer (Memon et al., 2007). Benabed et al.
(2012) examined the performance of different types of
sand. The performance of a mix is directly related to the
675
fineness modulus (FM) of sand. Lower FM is induced by
smaller particles, which need more water and cement to
coat (Benabed et al., 2012).
Fibre
Fibres reduce the flowing ability of mortar. An experiment
conducted by Dawood and Ramli (2010) indicated that steel
fibre has more adverse effect than palm fibre.
Effect on strength
Binder
More binder results in more strength. As a partial
replacement of cement, many pozzolanic materials were
investigated in recent studies. Up to 30% replacement,
fly ash showed adverse effect (Khotbehsara et al., 2015).
Although in a combination with silica fume it gave a better
result. Replacing cement partially by silica fume had a pos-
itive impact on strength properties (Shannag and Mourad,
2012). As a filler matter, silica fume reduces the poros-
ity at transition zone, on the other hand, it creates bonds
between particles by pozzolanic reaction with Ca(OH)2 . 50%
replacement of OPC by ground granulated blast furnace
slag (GGBFS) gave 5—15% more strength. 60% replacement
showed similar results as the control mix (Memon et al.,
2007). Compressive strength goes up for a replacement up
to 3% by nano-CuO (Khotbehsara et al., 2015) and falls down
in case of nano-SiO2 and nano-TiO2 (Rao et al., 2015).
Superplasticizer
Allowing for low w/c ratio, superplasticizer improves the
strength property of mortar. On the other hand, it slows
down the hydration process (Memon et al., 2007). For a
particular situation, the optimum dose should be deter-
mined. Reducing sand ratio increases the effectiveness of
such agents (Memon et al., 2007). A mixture of palm oil fuel
ash and pulverized burnt clay allows higher doses without
any adverse effect (Hassan et al., 2014).
Filler matter
Effect of filler matter on strength is dominated by its particle
size. Coarser sand gives better performance. It can also be
related to FM value. Higher FM value indicates better quality
sand (Benabed et al., 2012).
Fibre
Recent study on fibre induced SFM shows an improvement in
strength. Mixing of 0.5% palm and 1.25% steel fibre increases
the compressive strength by about 12% and 21% respectively.
Excess amount of fibre may cause air voids, disintegration
and non-homogeneity, thus a drop in strength (Dawood and
Ramli, 2010).
Conclusion
Self-flowing mortar (SFM) could be used in ferrocement
jacketing system for strengthening applications of differ-
ent structural systems. Constituent materials of SFM dictate
the strength and flowability of SFM. Therefore, an optimiza-
tion is required in selecting the constituent materials of SFM
676
for such applications. For effective industrial application,
high-strength flowable mortar should be designed using low-
cost and locally available materials. Although, a significant
amount of researches have been done on SFM for differ-
ent kinds of application, research on SFM for strengthening
applications are very few. Therefore, more studies should
be carried out on SFM for strengthening applications.
Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
and the Ministry of Education, Malaysia for providing the
necessary funding for this research through the UKM-Industry
Collaboration Grant Scheme (INDUSTRI-2014-004) and the
ERGS Grant Scheme (ERGS/1/2013/TK03/UKM/02/6).
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