Effect of Silica Fume and Foundry waste sand on strength characteristics of Geogrid and Ferro cement panel

The present study has made an emphasis for comparing the strength characteristics of ferrocement panels with panels made with HDPE geogrids. Also, an attempt has been made to replace cement partially by silica fume; which is a by-product obtained from the production of silicon and ferrosilicon alloys in the electric arc furnaces. The rise in the cost of river sand used as fine aggregate in concrete has increased the cost of construction significantly in the past few decades. Foundry Sand, which is obtained from the Foundry Industries are treated as waste materials that have the recycling capability in concrete and it is been proposed for partially replacing sand in this study. Different mix proportions using the above materials have been made and panels were prepared for optimum proportion based on the compressive and tensile strength of cube and cylinder specimens. Panels with two layers of steel mesh and geogrid mesh were cast. A comparative study on strength characteristics has been made and failure patterns of the panels have been studied. It was shown that strength of geogrid panels was on par with ferrocement panels and are advantageous to ferrocement panels in corrosion resistance and elasticity