Studies on Alternate Material for Parabolic Roofing Panel

Alternative building materials are those which can be used economically by replacing conventional building materials. The roof is one of the main components of a building system providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of temperature and wind. Most common type of roofing system adopted in India are reinforced concrete roof. Use of conventional building materials are responsible for global carbon dioxide emissions. The present study involves experimental investigations of a mud concrete parabolic arch with bamboo as reinforcement. Use of parabolic arch facilitates lowered bending moment as compared to circular arches due to its structural form. The mud concrete parabolic arches are flexurally tested under single point load. Investigations revealed that ultimate load carrying capacity is higher than the theoretical load. Reliability analysis performed for parabolic arch indicates the probability of survival is 0.99. The arch panels are considered to constitute an alternate roofing system of a particular size along with triangular beams designed with M20 grade concrete. Cost and embodied energy analysis of alternate roofing system is carried out and compared with conventional RC slab for the same plan dimension. It is found that the alternate roofing system viz. parabolic arches made using mud concrete are 18.23% more economical and 19% more energy efficient than conventional RCC slab.