Composite Roofing Tiles

Published on 14 May 2021. Written by Reddy Shekar

The roofing system construction plays a vital role in both cost and aesthetic appearance factors. There is a greater shortage of roofing materials in developed countries.

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The locally available materials like soil, stone, grass and palm leaves require a lot of maintenance and easily exposed to weathering actions. Corrugated Iron sheets and Asbestos sheets became expensive to install and maintain for small scale structures. These all problems or stakes initiate the engineers to use composite materials in the roofing system. Coir-fibre cement roofing tiles are such new composite materials using in the construction industry.

All types of roofing materials have demerits in terms of cost, strength, weight, and maintenance. For example, cement concrete tiles are found to be good roofing materials. But, their high self-weight requires strong load-bearing members. There is a need for changes in conventional roofing system to strengthen the roof framework. Coir-fibre cement tiles help to construct a lightweight and durable roofing system compared to the normal cement concrete roofing tiles.

Coir-fibre is one of the natural fiber and is extracted from the husk of the coconut fruit. The main advantage of these tiles is easily available in most of every region. Brown coir and white coir are two available varieties of coir. This composite material also possesses lower shrinkage characteristics than cement concrete tiles.

Materials required:

1. Cement
2. Sand
3. Coir-fibre
4. Water

Project implementation:

1. Select the suitable materials like cement, sand and coir-fibre to prepare the cube specimen.
2. Finalize the percentage replacement of cement with fibres.
3. Take the cement mortar ratio of 1:4 for this experimental study.
4. Add the 10% of fibres by weight of cement.
5. Prepare the composite cube specimen using a standard mould.
6. After the curing process, conduct the compressive test on the specimen at 7 and 28days.
7. Repeat the above procedure for 15% of fibre addition to find the optimum percentage of fibre to prepare the stronger composite material.
8. In the same way, cast the coir-fibre tile specimens of 320*280*15mm size to use in the roofing system.
9. Prepare the cost analysis table based on the manufacturing of composite tiles and compare with cement concrete tiles.

Advantages:

1. Resistant to fungi and rot.
2. Provides excellent insulation against temperature and sound.
3. Moth-proof.
4. Not easily combustible.
5. Unaffected by moisture and dampness.
6. Tough and durable.
7. Easy to clean.
8. Spring back to shape even after constant use.
9. Resilient.

Conclusion:

Composite materials can make the roofing system more efficient with minimum maintenance. Coir-fibre is an eco-friendly product can build using locally available materials.

Kit required to develop Composite Roofing Tiles:

• Cement
• Sand
• Coir-fibre
• Water

Technologies you will learn by working on Composite Roofing Tiles:

• Composite material
• Roofing system

Any Questions?