الفهرس 
CHAPTER (1) IntoductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This thesis aims to present a new and effective method for developing the ferrocement composite semi-circular panels used in the coverings, and to compare the results of the practical and theoretical study, using some parameters such as the use of different types of mesh, the number of layers, and the study of the structural behavior of these panels under the influence of static loads. The sandwich panels consisted of two thin ferrocement layers reinforced with different number of layers of closely spaced welded steel
mesh, expanded steel mesh and tenax mesh. The core of the plates was made of light weight fibres foam concrete. We
thought to develop this idea into an innovative form of coverings and study its behavior under the influence of loads and using different types of reinforcing materials. The thickness of the ferrocement skin layer is 25 mm. The
material is 50 mm thick which consisted of expanded polystyrene as light weight aggregate. Two types of the steel
meshes are used to reinforce the ferrocement skin layers. Welded wire mesh, expanded metal mesh and steel wires are used to reinforce the top and the bottom ferrocement skin layers through light weight concrete together to provide shear reinforcement. A total of 10 semi-circular plates have the dimensions of 500 mm in width, and 2000
mm in length are tested under four lines loadings of effective span 1800 mm up to failure. The deformation characteristics
and cracking behaviour are measured and observed for each plate, Using ABAQUS as a finite element package for analyzing the reinforced ferrocement panels. There are studied three parameters of thesis at first studying the behaviour of reinforced ferrocement panels using Welded metal meshes, expanded metal meshes and Tenax meshes, second studying the effect of number of layers meshes for ferrocement panels and third studying the effect of synthetic
fibres for ferrocement panels. The results observed that using welded galvanized steel mesh gave the highest results compared to all tested semicircular tested panels and using
four layers of expanded metal mesh in reinforcing ferrocement panels clearly increased the ultimate load, decrease deflection, and improve the energy absorption than using other types of meshes. The results obtained are
compared with theoretical ones by using ABAQUS finite elements program. Good agreement was found between the
theoretical and experimental results. Panels will be of great construction advantages for both developed and developing counties alike. We used (Ferrocement panels, ABAQUS, Light
weight concrete, expanded polystyrene and coverings) as keywords for the thesis.