Flexural Behavior of Ferrocement Plates Using Iron Wire Mesh and Hand-Woven Polymer Mesh Reinforcement

Ferrocement is a lightweight, cost-effective structural material that is a thin mortar base reinforced by fine-diameter wire mesh and has become a popular solution in low-cost construction. The current research examines the flexural behavior of ferrocement plates reinforced with four iron mesh variants (hexagonal, woven 18-gauge, woven 20-gauge, and expanded metal mesh variants) and two hand-woven polymer mesh variants, which are polypropylene (PP) and Nylon-66. Fifty-four uniform-sized plates (250 × 550 × 12.5 mm) were reinforced with one to three layers of mesh and loaded to one point. Measured parameters were load deflection relationships, first-crack load, yield load, ultimate load, crack propagation, and modulus of rupture. Statistics show that metallic meshes are significantly superior to polymer meshes in terms of stiffness, crack management, and flexural strength. Among the metallic reinforcements, the woven 18-gauge mesh performed best, followed by the expanded metal mesh, which can be explained by the increased mesh-mortar interaction and ductile post-cracking response. On the other hand, PP and Nylon-66 meshes exhibited lower stiffness, worse bonding, and the strength declined with the number of mesh layers. These findings suggest that further attempts to create polymer meshes must focus on the optimization of mesh geometry and tensile stiffness and the strengthening of mesh-mortar interfacial bonds by surface modifications or hybrid reinforcement concepts. On balance, the current study highlights the high structural performance of iron meshes in thin ferrocement components and provides a recommendation on the development of polymer-based substitutes in load-bearing structures.