In such a structure, is it better to use more steel or less? – Anupama Kundoo, Director of the Workshop
The roof model was finished when we arrived at the work place. The most interesting thing that they set fire to the model to speed up the curing of the cement. It is beneficial to save time in this manner as the mould doesn’t require as much strength as the actual roof.
The roof model was finished when we arrived at the work place. The most interesting thing that they set fire to the model to speed up the curing of the cement. It is beneficial to save time in this manner as the mould doesn’t require as much strength as the actual roof.
On the other hand we noticed that we were using too much steel in one of the wall pieces and Anupama put the following question on the table: “In such a structure, is it better to use more steel or less?” We debated and hence concluded that it is better to use a chicken mesh and less steel. This makes it safer during disaster relief because the cement intertwines with the steel and hence doesn’t crumble. Moreover, the steel corrodes easily when used in such a thin structure.
We had also done an experiment on a piece of weak ferrocement wall to observe the way it breaks when force is acted upon it. The main observation was that the pieces breaking off were too large to be considered safe. We then inferred that the mesh used in this case was too large in size. In the current wall, the mesh size has been changed and in the future, we will be experimenting further with various meshes to see how they react.
Finally we had the pleasure to interact and have a discussion with Engineer Jean Pougeault helped us address many of the questions we were tackling. He affirmed the conclusions we had made about the steel. Furthermore, he gave us multiple ideas to work with regarding the door. He agreed with Xisco’s idea of using a pipe to reinforce the pivot of the door to the roof and we will be further resolving the door in the coming days.
Affordable Habitat - the blog 