Formwork is a temporary mold used to contain and shape wet concrete until it hardens. It is commonly made from timber or steel. Formwork must balance requirements like containment, strength, resistance to leakage, accuracy, ease of handling, finish, access for concrete, and economy. It must safely support the weight of wet concrete and other loads until the concrete sets. Formwork design considers quality, safety, and minimizing costs through reuse. Forms are designed according to intended structural elements like walls, columns, beams, slabs, stairs, and more.
2. What is Formwork?
o It should be capable of carrying all imposed dead and live loads
apart from its own weight.
o Formwork is a mould including all supporting structures, used to
shape and support the concrete until it attains sufficient strength to
carry its own weight.
Formwork is commonly made of
o Steel
o Timber
5. Formwork has been in use since the beginning of concrete
construction.
New materials such as steel, plastics and fibreglass are used in
formwork.
Greater attention is being given to the design, fabrication,
erection and dismantling of formwork
Formwork is designed according to The ACI document SP-4.
6. Qualities of Formwork
It should be water tight.
It should be strong.
It can be reusable.
Its contact surface should be uniform.
It should be according to the size of member.
7. In order to successfully carry out its function,
formwork must achieve a balance of following
requirements:
• Containment
• Strength
• Resistance To Leakage
• Accuracy
• Ease Of Handling
• Finish And Reuse Potential
• Access For Concrete
• Economy
8. Containment: formwork must be capable of shaping and
supporting the fluid concrete until it cures.
Strength: formwork must be capable of safely withstanding
without distortion or danger the dead weight of the fluid
concrete is placed on it, labour weight, equipment weight and
any environmental loadings.
9. Ease of Handling: form panels and units should be designed so
that their maximum size does not exceed that which can be easily
handled by hand or mechanical means.
In addition all formwork must also be designed and constructed
to include facilities for adjustments, levelling, easing and
striking without damage to the form work or concrete.
10. Economy: all the formwork is very expensive. On average about 35% of
the total cost of any finished concrete unit or element can be attributed to
its formwork; of this just over 40% can be taken for material for
formwork and 60% for labour.
The formwork designer must therefore not only consider the
maximum number of times that any form can be reused, but also
produce a design that will minimize the time taken for erection and
striking.
12. Quality:
Forms must be designed and built with sufficient stiffness
and accuracy so that the size, shape, position, and finish of the
cast concrete are maintained.
Safety:
Forms must be built sufficient strength and factor of safety so
that they have the capable of all supporting loads.
Economy:
Forms must be built efficiently, minimizing time and cost.
13. Requirements of formwork:
Material should be cheap and re usable,
It should be practically water proof, so that it should not absorb water
from concrete,
Swelling and shrinkage should be minimum,
Strong enough to with stand all external loads,
Deflection should be minimum,
Surface should be smooth, and afford easy striping,
Light in weight, so that easy to transfer,
Joints should be stiff, so that lateral deformation and leak is minimum .
14. a) Assembly and erection .
b) Concrete placement.
c) Stripping and dismantling.
Three stages in the process :
15. Formwork detail for different
structural members
In concrete construction formwork is commonly
provided for the following structural members.
o Wall
o Column
o Slabs & Beams
o Stairs
o Chimneys
o Water tanks
o Cooling Towers
16. It consists of
Timber sheeting
Vertical posts
Horizontal members
Stakes
Wedges
After completing one
side of formwork
reinforcement is provided
at the place then the
second side formwork is
provided.
FORMWORK FOR WALL
17. Formwork for Column
• It consists of the following
– Side & End Planks
– Yoke
– Nut & Bolts
• Two end & two side planks
are joined by the yokes and
bolts.
19. Formwork for Slabs & beams:
• It consists of
– Sole plates
– Wedges
– Props
– Head tree
– Planks
– Batten
– Ledgers
• Beam formwork
rests on head tree
• Slab form work
rests on battens
and joists
• If prop height are
more than 8’
provide horizontal
braces.
24. FORMWORK FOR CHIMNEYS:
For tall chimneys two types of forms
techniques are in generally use in our country
a) Jump form
b) Slip form
25. Removal of formwork:
Time of formwork removal depends on the following factors
1. Type of Cement
1. Rapid hardening cements require lesser time as compared to OPC
(Ordinary Portland Cement)
2. Ratio of concrete mix
1. Rich ratio concrete gain strength earlier as compared to weak ratio
concrete.
3. Weather condition
1. Hydration process accelerates in hot weather conditions as compared to
cold and humid weather conditions.
27. • First free end's support
should be removed.
• And then from right to
left it should be proceed.
• If we are removing from
the mid span then it will
act as a prop cantilever.
Cantilever slab
28. • In simply supported we
have to remove the
support from the mid
span to the ends.
To meet the design
behavior.
Simply supported slab
29. Maintenance of formwork:
• Due to continuous use wooden planks & steel plates
surfaces become uneven and require maintenance.
• For wooden formwork use cardboard or plastic fiber
board. Bolt hole places must also be repaired.
• For steel formwork plates must be leveled by mallet
and loose corners must be welded.
30. Cost of formwork
For normal works cost of formwork is about 30%-40% of the concrete cost.
For special works cost of formwork is about 50%-60% of the concrete cost.
Formwork cost is controlled by the following factors
• Formwork Material cost
• Formwork erecting cost
• Formwork removal cost
• Formwork jointing cost (Nails and Cables)
• Labor charges.
31. Advantages of steel form work:
It can be used for a no. of times.
It is non absorbent.
Smooth finish surface obtained.
No shrinkage of formwork occurs.
Easy to use.
Its volume is less
Its strength is more.
32. LOADS ON FORMWORK:
• Dead load
Self weight of formwork
Pressure and loads from fresh concrete
Reinforcement
• Imposed load
Construction workers
Stacking of materials
• Horizontal loads
• Environmental loads
Accidental loads
Wind loads