Polypropylene reinforced cement sheets

The paper examines the effects of the addition of polypropylene mesh of different types and volumes upon the flexural load deflection properties of a cement matrix at different ages developed at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Laboratory. The products were chosen to highlight its potential use in low income housing and are intended to be used as an alternative to asbestos cement sheets. The major application of the composite will be as corrugated sheeting for roofing and cladding. The sheets consist of 1% to 10% by volume of polypropylene mesh in cement matrix. Comparative tests are also reported with the flexural behaviour of asbestos cement sheets. Both sheets underwent 4 - point loading and the results indicated that the new sheeting can satisfactorily sustain the loads showed by corrugated asbestos sheets.