The analysis was performed for a typical tank in the
water treatment plant, with a diameter of 20 m and
height of 2.68 m. The wall thickness was 8.0 cm. The steel
volumetric ratio ranged from 1.08% to 2.03% in the
bottom, for the hoop direction, and from 1.08% to 1.62%
in the vertical direction. The specific surface ranged from
0.5 to 0.94 cm2/cm3. Two types of welded steel wires
meshes were used: PB 196 and EQ 98. The former is
composed of a grid of 2.56 mm diameter wires, spaced by
5.0 cm, whilst the latter has 3.0 and 5.0 mm wires in orthogonal
directions, spaced by 20 and 10 cm, respectively.
The steel grid is welded and not galvanised. Note
that, due to the wall thickness and the amount of reinforcement
involved, one can regard the tank as a ‘‘thin
reinforced concrete’’ as much as a ‘‘thick ferrocement’’
structure. In fact, the tank can be classified as placed in
the region between what satisfies the ferrocement criteria
and what is considered reinforced concrete. Nonetheless,
throughout this work the terminology ferrocement is used.
The mechanical properties of ferrocement have been
the subject of a number of previous studies [8–13]. In
this work, four series of tests were carried out to determine
Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio for the
mortar in compression yield stress for the mortar matrix
in tension and Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio for
the composite in tension