International Journal of Science and Engineering Volume 3, Number 1 - 2015 PP: 12-18 ©IJSE Available at www.ijse.org ISSN: 2347-2200 ISSN:2347-2200/V3N1/pp-12-18 /©IJSE A Review on construction process of Ferrocement sandwich panel: Instigating an orderly approach in Bangladesh R. Hafiza 1 , S. Sameen 2 , T. Rahman 3 1 Research fellow, Building Material Division, Housing and Building Research Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh,rubaiyet_h@yahoo.com 2 Research fellow, Housing Division, Housing and Building Research Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh,shafinaz.arc@gmail.com 3 Research fellow, Housing Division, Housing and Building Research Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh,trisha.arch.07@gmail.com ABSTRACT :- This paper reviews the construction process of Ferro cement sandwich panels as non-load bearing units of buildings. The cast in situ construction process on a smaller scale pilot project including materials and the steps of workmanship will be explored in this paper. The sandwich panels consisted of two thin ferrocement layers reinforced with one layer of woven wire mesh. The core was about 56.25 mm thick and made of lightweight expanded polystyrene sheets. Steel wires were used to tie the two layers of iron meshes together. A total of 100sft sandwich panel was constructed. The proposed panels are lighter in weight relative to the conventional brick walls. This kind of lightweight construction process could prove to be a true merit for a developing country like Bangladesh. Keywords: Ferro cement, Sandwich Panels, Wall Panels. 1. INTRODUCTION The customary building construction trend in Bangladesh usually focuses on the use of burnt clay bricks for the infill and Reinforced Cement Concrete frame structures which are heavy in weight. In large extent they prove themselves uneconomic. It has become a matter of concern to use more lightweight materials in any construction, to make the process more cost effective by reducing the load of the structure. Using burnt brick as the main component of construction has severe damaging properties on the environment. Production of burnt bricks has negative effects such as cutting of trees for burning fuel, and degradation of soil near rivers where the brick fields are situated. Emission of huge quantity of toxic elements from brick kilns is causing serious health hazards. There are about 45000 of brick kilns in Bangladesh which were found to be producing 79% of CO2 in the last 10 years. [1] It is claimed that every year about 1% of farm land in the country is being converted to non- agricultural uses. The converted land is predominantly used for unplanned construction of houses, followed by roads, establishment of business enterprises as well as brick fields [2]. In the case of cement manufacturing; it is an energy-intensive process which is also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions; and close to 5.8 GJ of energy is consumed in the production of a ton of cement [3]. This particular writing concentrates on the construction technique of ferrocement sandwich panel, which is an experimental adaptation of ferrocement emerged as an alternative to burnt bricks. Ferro cement is a type of thin walled reinforced concrete; commonly consisted of cement mortar reinforced with closely spaced layers of continuous and relatively small wire mesh [4]. The closely-spaced and uniformly-distributed reinforcement in ferrocement, transforms the otherwise brittle material into a superior ductile composite. Thus, ferrocement has been regarded as highly versatile construction material possessing unique properties of strength and serviceability. Its advantageous properties such as strength, toughness, water tightness, lightness, durability, fire resistance, and environmental stability cannot be matched by any other thin construction material [5]. Ferro cement is the promising composite material for prefabrication and industrialization of the building industry [6][7].