INTRODUCTION


What we call taday as R.C.C. construction material and Ferrocement, entered construction field simultaneously by mid-19th century. Mr. J.L.Lambot built a wire-reinforced boat in which reinforcement was in the form of a network of wires. However, since then, R.C.C. advanced as a fullfledged constructional material, time tested and design procedure formulated, though modified from time to time. On the other hand, ferrocement was forgotten almost for a century and took a small step in the middle of 20th century, when Mr. Pier Nervi devised the homogeneity property of ferrocement.

Looking at the advantages and superiority of ferrocement over R.C.C., now the former should have squared up atleast a century lag over the later. But in fact only some stray items like tanks, domes, etc.came in its shape. The physical property studied by Mr. Nervi was lost and once again, ferrocement got cutoff from major construction field.

The obvious reason was design system for building system was used as non vulnerable construction material.

Whatever efforts were put in formulating these minor designs , they were on the basis of R.C.C. design, which is not considered as 'homogeneous' material as ferrocement is considered.

It was only after 1990 that, Mr. Hemant Vaidya took up the thread left by Mr.Nervi and designed for the first time ever FERROCEMENT BEAM as homogeneous construction material. This beam was physically and structurally of ferrocement in words and spirit. This was a giant leap that removed all the hurdles in using ferrocement as fullfledged construction material.
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