Behavior of ferrocement housing under cyclical loads

The shortage of dwelling in the world has taken for several years to the search of new materials and alternative systems for its construction. For more than 25 decades, ferrocement has been studied and applied as a dwelling solution in several countries, among them Colombia.. This article refers to the results of a research about seismic behavior of ferrocement dwellings. Two modules built on real scale with prefabricated panels of ferrocement thin wall were used. On each module of ferrocement, tests of cyclical load were carried out, and its behavior was evaluated. The obtained results showed the sensitivity of this structural system under several cycles of load, with losses of rigidity near to 20% for the first cycles and up to 85% at the end of the same.