scope:

PREFACE

The use of thin reinforced cementitious products continues to grow rapidly today in a variety of construction applications worldwide. Thin reinforced cementitious products are strong and tough, dimensionally stable, fire resistant, and possess excellent moisture resistance and environmental durability. With the continued rapid decline in the use of asbestos fibers as reinforcement in thin cementitious products, several advancements have occurred in the field as a result of the development of new types and forms of reinforcement for thin cementitious products. Also, several advancements have taken place in the material science and manufacturing methods of cementitious materials for thin reinforced cementitious products. This publication contains the papers originally presented in a symposium on the topic of thin reinforced cementitious products organized by ACI Committee 549 on Thin Reinforced Cementitious Products and Ferrocement during the ACI 2003 Spring Convention held in Vancouver, Canada. The symposium explored current state-of-the-art and recent advances in material science, manufacturing methods, and practical applications of thin reinforced cementitious products.

The topics covered in this publication include material science of textile reinforced concrete, use of textile reinforced concrete for integrated formwork and exterior cladding panels, prestressed thin-sheet concrete products, ultra-high-performance thin precast concrete products, production of concrete tubes by centrifugation method, freezing-and-thawing durability of commercial fiber-reinforced cement boards, structural evaluation of cement-skin sandwich building systems, microwave accelerated curing method for producing precast cementitious products, history of glass fiber-reinforced concrete (GFRC) products, and modeling of cement-based laminate composites. The papers presented in this publication have been peer reviewed by experts in the field, according to the guidelines established by the American Concrete Institute.

The future of thin reinforced cementitious products depends largely on their ability to compete cost effectively with similar products made using other materials such as metals and plastics. For future research and development, this entails understanding and optimizing fiber-reinforced cementitious compositions from a fundamental material science perspective; developing and implementing the use of cost-effective raw materials, particularly reinforcing fibers and other forms of reinforcement; and developing efficient manufacturing methods to produce thin reinforced cementitious products.