Investigation of Plant Fiber-Reinforced Cementitious Composites for Permanent Formwork in Foundation Beams

This paper aims to solve the problems of extensive labor input and long construction periods of traditional foundation beam brick formwork. We propose using plant fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (PFRCC) panels instead of conventional foundation beam brick formwork. This study conducted tests and finite element analyses on the PFRCC panels employed as permanent formwork for foundation beams, based on a construction project in a community in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, China. The results indicate that the maximum bending stress of the PFRCC panels utilized as permanent formwork for foundation beams is 0.4069 MPa, occurring at the junction between the side and bottom forms, which is significantly lower than the specified design strength of 13.7 MPa. Furthermore, the maximum deformation recorded was 1.528 mm at the mid-span of the side template, remaining below the permissible limit of 2.5 mm. The bending strength and stiffness deformation meet the design requirements, which shows that the PFRCC panels can be used as the permanent formwork of the foundation beam.