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Self-owing mortar for ferrocement in

strengthening applications
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 xxx

KEYWORDS
Columns;
Ferrocement;
Jacketing;
Strengthening;
Self-owing mortar
(SFM)

Summary
Ferrocement technology is becoming more and more important nowadays for
strengthening and retrotting of concrete structures mainly due to its inherent strength properties. However, its labour intensive nature makes it undesirable for rapid strengthening works.
In narrow spaces, strengthening with conventional ferrocement is very critical and also time
consuming. Self-owing mortar (SFM) could be used with this technology to overcome these
limitations. This article discusses the applicability of SFM in ferrocement technology. The aim
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
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

This article belongs to the special issue on Engineering and Material 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).

placement a challenge. Another method is by plastering

the wire mesh with cement mortar manually in several
stages that makes it labour intensive. Therefore, the quality of the end product becomes non-uniform and at the
same time it become both time and labour consuming. Selfowing 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 formation caused by the bad workmanship and ensures proper
compaction (Hassan et al., 2014). Preparing a self-owing
mortar mix without compromising its strength properties
is a challenge, as the rheological properties often contradict 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/).

Please cite this article in press as: Sakir, S., et al., Self-owing mortar for ferrocement in strengthening applications.
Perspectives in Science (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pisc.2016.06.055

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Figure 1

Connement of jacketed (a) cylindrical and (b) square column (Kaish et al., 2012).

particle homogeneity are required for the adequate uidity of fresh mix. Using superplasticizer and addition of some
specic ller materials improves the owability but often
decrease strength properties. An optimization between
uidity and strength is required. This study discusses ferrocement strengthening mechanism and applicability of SFM
in ferrocement for strengthening applications. The study
also focuses about the principle, raw materials, preparation techniques and recent developments of SFM, which are
compatible with ferrocement technology.

Ferrocement strengthening mechanism

Under compression, when the core concrete undergoes lateral bulging, the external ferrocement jacket provides a

Figure 2
2016).

passive connement. The bulging property of the core and

the stiffness of conning jacket dictate the overall strengthening mechanism. In case of a circular RC column, the
concrete core is uniformly conned by the external jacketing, 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 connement to rectangular and square sections. 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 overcome this drawback. All three techniques were successful to
overcome the fundamental problem of square/rectangular
ferrocement jacketing system.

Ferrocement jacketing with (a) extra reinforcement at corners; (b) rounded corners; and (c) shear keys (Kaish et al.,

Please cite this article in press as: Sakir, S., et al., Self-owing mortar for ferrocement in strengthening applications.
Perspectives in Science (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pisc.2016.06.055

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SFM for ferrocement in strengthening applications

Self-owing mortar for ferrocement

SFM is a mortar mixture which is able to completely ll
any area inside the formwork and consolidate without any
kind of compaction or mechanical vibration. The highly
uid nature of SFM makes it suitable for placing in difcult
conditions, like narrow spaces and in sections with congested reinforcement. Use of SFM can also help minimize
hearing-related damages on the worksite that are induced
by mechanical vibration.

Factors inuencing performance of

self-owing mortar
Ferrocement jacket restrains lateral expansion of core concrete 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 ow-ability. In recent
time, many researchers have tried to improve both properties, which are discussed subsequently in this article.

Effect on ow-ability
Binder
Generally an increase in binder ratio increases owability
(Hassan et al., 2014). Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) is the
most common binding material. In recent years, many pozzolanic materials like, y 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, y ash adds to the uidity (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 inuence on owability (Hassan et al., 2014). The
addition of nanoparticles (CuO, SiO2 and TiO2 ) in the mix
gives a rise in specic surface and lessens free water, which
causes a drop in uidity (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).

3
neness 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 owing ability of mortar. An experiment
conducted by Dawood and Ramli (2010) indicated that steel
bre has more adverse effect than palm bre.

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,
y 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 positive impact on strength properties (Shannag and Mourad,
2012). As a ller matter, silica fume reduces the porosity 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 515% 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 determined. 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 ller 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 bre induced SFM shows an improvement in
strength. Mixing of 0.5% palm and 1.25% steel bre increases
the compressive strength by about 12% and 21% respectively.
Excess amount of bre may cause air voids, disintegration
and non-homogeneity, thus a drop in strength (Dawood and
Ramli, 2010).

Conclusion
Filler matter
Sand is the most common ller in mortar. It reduces uid
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

Self-owing mortar (SFM) could be used in ferrocement

jacketing system for strengthening applications of different structural systems. Constituent materials of SFM dictate
the strength and owability of SFM. Therefore, an optimization is required in selecting the constituent materials of SFM

Please cite this article in press as: Sakir, S., et al., Self-owing mortar for ferrocement in strengthening applications.
Perspectives in Science (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pisc.2016.06.055

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for such applications. For effective industrial application,

high-strength owable mortar should be designed using lowcost and locally available materials. Although, a signicant
amount of researches have been done on SFM for different 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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Please cite this article in press as: Sakir, S., et al., Self-owing mortar for ferrocement in strengthening applications.
Perspectives in Science (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pisc.2016.06.055