A study on affordable roofing system using bricks as infill

Affordable is the term used to describe the dwelling units which are affordable to a certain group of people. Providing adequate shelter for all people is a biggest challenge. It is known in construction of buildings that structural roofing system cost substantial amount compared to other structural components. Therefore any savings achieved in structural roofing system will considerably reduce the total cost of a building. The present study is carried to develop an alternative roofing system which is affordable. In this study, a grid consisting of primary and secondary beams is considered. The space between the primary and secondary beams is filled using bricks which are laid as linear arch. Different spans such as 7 bricks span (525mm), 9 bricks span (675mm) and 11 bricks span (825mm) are considered. Width wise multiple rows of bricks such as 2 layer and 3 layer are considered. Beams are designed using M20 grade concrete and reinforcing steel of yield strength of 415 N/mm2. Cost analysis made for proposed affordable roofing system, shows an average reduction of 36.37% compared to conventional RCC roofing system. The reliability of the proposed roofing system has high probability of survival and is on par with conventional RCC roofing.