FORMWORK

FORMWORK
✓ 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.

✓ It should be capable of carrying all imposed, dead and live loads apart from its

own weight.

✓ The term ‘formwork’ includes the actual material in contact with the concrete,

known as form face, and all the necessary associated supporting structure.

REQUIREMENTS OF A GOOD FORMWORK SYSTEM

✓ In order to successfully carry out its function, formwork must achieve a balance

of following requirements:

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, labor weight, equipment

weight and any environmental loadings.

Resistance to leakage:

✓ All joints in form work must be either close fitting of covered with form tape to

make them grout tight.

✓ If grout leakage occurs the concrete will leak at that point. Leakages cause

honeycombing of the surface.

Accuracy:

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✓ Formwork must be accurately set out so that the resulting concrete product is

in a right place and is of correct shape and dimensions.

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, leveling, easing and striking without damage to the

form work or concrete.

Finish and reuse potential:

✓ The form face material must be selected to be capable of consistently imparting

the desired concrete finish (smooth, textured, featured or exposed aggregate

etc.).

✓ At the same time it should also achieve the required number of reuse.

Access for concrete:

✓ Any formwork arrangement must provide access for placing of the concrete.

✓ The extent of this provision will be dependent on the ease of carrying out the

concrete operations.

Economy:

✓ 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.

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MATERIALS FOR FORMWORK

✓ Formwork can be made out of a large variety of materials.

✓ The material most commonly being used to date is timber. However, due to the

depleting forest reserves and increasing cost of timber the use of alternate

materials such as plywood and steel has become prominent.

✓ More recently, materials such as plastics and fiberglass are also being used for

pre-fabricating formwork.

✓ The type of material to be used depends on the nature of construction as well as

availability and cost of material.

✓ The constraints on the project such as overall cost, time of completion also play

a major role in the use of a particular material for formwork.

TIMBER FORMS
✓ Timber is required for practically all jobs of formwork. The timber used for

formwork must satisfy the following requirements:

• It should be durable and treatable

• It should have sufficient strength characteristics

• It should be light weight and well seasoned without warping, It

should hold nails well.

Advantages of using timber forms:

• It is economical for small construction jobs

• It is design flexible and easy to erect

• It has good thermal insulation which makes it useful to be used in

colder Regions
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• It can easily be made into any shape or size

Plywood forms (in combination with timber)

Concrete shuttering plywood is preservative treated and especially suited for

use in concrete shuttering and formwork.

The plywood is built up of odd number of layers with grain of adjacent layers

perpendicular to each other.

✓ Plywood is used extensively for formwork for concrete, especially for

sheathing, decking and form linings.

✓ There are two types of plywood - internal and exterior. The interior type is

bonded with water resistant glue and exterior type is bonded with water

proof glue.

Hardboard forms

✓ Hardboard is a board material manufactured of wood fiber, which is then

refined or partly refined to form a panel having a density range of

approximately 50 to 80 pounds per cubic foot.

✓ Hardboards are standard / non-tempered or tempered.

✓ The tempered one being used for formwork. Tempered hardboard is solid or

perforated hardboard panels impregnated with resin under high pressure to

make them stronger and more resistant to moisture and abrasion.

✓ The boards available in large sheets have a hard, smooth surface that

produces a concrete whose surface is relatively free of blemishes and joint

marks.

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✓ The thin sheets can be bent to small radii, which is an advantage when casting

concrete members with curved surfaces.

ALUMINIUM FORMS

✓ Forms made from aluminum are in many respects similar to those made of

steel.

✓ However, because of their lower density, aluminum forms are lighter than

steel forms, and this is their primary advantage when compared to steel.

✓ As the strength of aluminum in handling, tension and compression is less than

the strength of steel, it is necessary to use large sections.

✓ The formwork turns out to be economical if large numbers of reuses are made

in construction.

✓ The major disadvantage of aluminum forms is that no changes can be made

once the formwork is fabricated.

PLASTICS

✓ These forms have become increasingly popular for casting unique shapes and

patterns being designed in concrete because of the excellent finish obtained

requiring minimum or no surface treatment and repairs.

✓ Different types of plastic forms are available like glass reinforced plastic,

fiber reinforced plastic and thermoplastics etc.

✓ Fiberglass-reinforced plastic is the most common and has several advantages

such as

a) The material allows greater freedom of design

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b) Unusual textures and designs can be molded into the form

c) It allows the contractor to pour structural and finished concrete

Simultaneously
Because sections can be joined on the job site in such a way so as to eliminate

joints, there is no size limitation

If carefully handled, a number of reuses are possible making it highly

Economical

✓ It is lightweight and easily stripped

✓ The disadvantage of using plastic forms is that it does not lend itself to field

fabrication hence, the design and planning of this form must be carefully

carried out.

✓ Also care must take not to damage the plastic by the heat applied for

accelerated curing of the concrete.

✓ Trough and waffle units in fiberglass are used in construction of large floor

areas and multistoried office buildings.

STEEL FORMWORK:

✓ Mostly used in large construction projects or in situations where large number

of re-uses of the same shuttering is possible.

✓ Suitable for circular or curved shaped structures such as tanks, columns,

chimneys. Etc. & for structures like sewer tunnel and retaining wall.

Advantages of steel formwork over timber form:

1. strong, durable & have longer life

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2. Reuses can be assumed to vary from 100 to 120 while timber varies from 10

to 12.

3. Steel can be installed & dismantled with greater ease & speed resulting in

saving in labour cost.

4. Excellent quality of exposed concrete surface obtained. Thus saving in the

cost of finishing the conc. surface.

5. No danger of formwork absorbing water from the conc. & hence minimizing

honeycombing

CONSTRUCTION OF FORMWORK:

Propping and centering:

✓ The props used for centering may be of steel, timber post or pillars made up

of brick masonry in mud mortar are also sometimes used as props.

Shuttering:

✓ Can be made up of timber planks or it may be in the form of panel unit made

either by fixing ply wood to timber frames or by welding steel plates to angle

framing.

Provision of camber

✓ Certain amount of deflection in structure is unavoidable.

✓ It is therefore desirable to give an upward camber in the horizontal member

of conc.

✓ Structure to counteract the effect of deflection.

Surface treatment

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✓ The formwork should be cleaned of all rubbish particularly the sawdust savings

& chippings etc.

✓ The face of formwork in contact with conc. shall be cleaned & treated with

release agent like raw linseed oil or soft soap solution as to prevent the conc.

getting stuck to the formwork.

Order and method of removing formwork:

Shuttering forming vertical faces of walls, beams & column sides should be

removed first.

Shuttering forming soffit to slab should be removed next.

✓ Shuttering forming soffit to beams, girders or other heavily loaded member

should be removed in the end.

Recommended duration taken for removal of formwork

1 Walls Columns & Vertical Sides of Beams 1-2 Day

2 Slabs 3 Days

3 Beam Soffit 7 Days

4 Removal of Props To Slabs

A) Slab Spanning Up to 4.5m 7 Days

B) Slab Spanning Over 4.5m 14 Days

5 Removal of Props to Beams and Arches

A) Spanning Up to 6m 14 Days

B) Spanning Over 6m 21days

TYPES OF FORMWORK

✓ There are different types of formwork available for different purposes.

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✓ Generally, the formworks for vertical concreting are called wall forms and those

for horizontal concreting are called slab or floor forms.

✓ The various types of formwork available today in the market are discussed in

detail.

TRADITIONAL FORMWORK

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This usually consists of standard framed panels tied together over their backs

with horizontal members called waling.

The waling is provided with the basic function of resisting the horizontal

force of wet concrete.

✓ One side of the wall formwork is first assembled ensuring that it is correctly

aligned, plumbed and strutted.

✓ The steel reinforcement cage is then placed and positioned before the other

side of the formwork is erected and fixed.

✓ Plywood sheet in combination with timber is the most common material used

for wall formwork.

✓ The usual method is to make up wall forms as framed panels with the plywood

facing sheet screwed on to studs on a timber frame.

✓ This allows for the plywood to be easily removed and reversed and used on

both sides so as to increase the number of reuses.

✓ The wall forms are susceptible to edge and corner damage and must be

carefully handled.

✓ Special attention must be given to coners and attached piers since the

increased pressures applied by wet concrete could cause the abutments to

open up, giving rise to unacceptable grout escape and a poor finish to the cast

wall.

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CLIMBING FORMWORK

✓ Method of casting walls consists of a climbing formwork, the climbing of which

may be manual or crane assisted.

It employs a common set of forms used in a repetitive manner for casting

walls in set vertical lifts.

After each casting the forms are removed and raised to form the next lift

until the required height has been reached.

✓ These forms are widely used in the construction of industrial chimneys, silos,

high rise towers & building cores, bridge piers & pylons, airport control towers,

telecommunication, towers etc.

The climbing form has many advantages such as the following

1. Staged construction process allows balance of site resources.

2. Anchor accessories can be reused after each pour, reducing material

costs on current and future construction programs.

3. In case of trolley mounted formwork, the panel retracts from the

face, providing space for cleaning and fixing of concrete.

4. Formwork & access platforms lifted as one, minimizing crane support,

reducing labour and material costs.

5. Fine adjustments of the form face can be made during construction,

providing accurate alignment of the form face vertically & laterally.

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SLIDING FORMWORK OR SLIPFORMING

✓ slip form means a continuously moving form, moving with such a speed that

concrete when exposed has already achieved enough strength to support the

vertical pressure from concrete still in the form as well as to withstand

lateral pressure caused by wind etc.

✓ Thus, the slip form concreting technique is a rapid and economical

construction method that can be applied with great advantage to many types

of construction projects such as chimneys, silos, water towers,

bridgecolumns, lift shaft cores and shaft lining etc.

✓ The technique is based on movable forms which are gradually lifted by

hydraulic jacks.

✓ It is a continuous process where wet concrete is added to wet concrete.

✓ the normal slipping speed is 3 to 6 meters per 24 hours.

✓ The slip form construction is designed for each project depending on the

structure of the project.

The advantages of slip forming are

1. Minimum consumption of timber and steel plates.

2. Total elimination of traditional scaffolding 3. Minimum

requirements of carpenters for assembling.

4. It gives a monolithic structure.

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5. The concrete surfaces can be treated and finished while concrete is

green,

6. The procedure of continuous slipping is applied to making both inner and

outer walls as well as columns of a building.

PERMANENT FORMWORK

✓ Permanent form or stay-in-place formwork is one in which the form is left

as an integral part of the structure.

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✓ Permanent formwork can also be utilized as the facing materials of in situ

reinforced concrete. They can be of two types—participating and non-

participating.

✓ The material used for these forms must be durable and of sufficient strength.

✓ Commonly used materials include polyvinyl chloride (pvc), galvanized coiled

sheet steel, fabricated steel, carbon/epoxy thin shell.

✓ The high initial cost of design and installation, lack of familiarity for

installation and maintenance and more specified form design are some of the

barriers to the use of this form.

✓ However, there are various advantages like low cost of transportation and

installation, precise form design, maximum flexibility, greater durability with

reduced long term maintenance and versatility.

SPECIAL FORMS

✓ These are those forms that are specially designed and manufactured for a

particular kind of construction.

✓ The need for a special formwork may arise due to several factors such as

1. When the contract demands the highest class of dimensional tolerance to

be followed

2. Where the form work shape required becomes uneconomical or

impracticable for site fabrication

3. Where the formwork is required to be self-contained i.e. self-

propelled,

4. Where rate of concreting, admixtures or types of concrete are such that

concrete pressure developed within forms and stresses in

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the forms demand special attention where a substantial number of

re-uses is envisaged

TABLE FORM

✓ This is a special formwork designed for use in casting large repetitive floor

slabs in medium to high-rise structures.

✓ The main objective of reducing the time required re-erecting, striking and re-

erecting slab formwork.

✓ A system which can be put as an entire unit, removed, hoisted and repositioned

without any dismantling.

GANGED PANEL FORM

✓ The increasing pace in the construction of multi-storey and massive concrete

structures, and the parallel progress in development of cranes and other

mechanical methods of transporting forms have made the use of ganged

prefabricated forms for the concreting of large sections of high walls very

common.

✓ Ranging up to 30x50 ft. their size is limited only by the mechanics of

handling.

✓ Large panels can be assembled flat on the ground where it is easier to work.

✓ Delay and lost motion are avoided in stripping because the gang forms are

stripped as a unit.

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TUNNEL FORM

✓ The tunnel formwork is a room sized structural steel fabricated form which

is used to cast the rcc walls and floor slabs of a building as a monolithic

structure in a continuous pour.

✓ The forms are then heated using hot air blowers for accelerated curing of the

concrete.

✓ This system is most economical when the structure consists of large number

of identical units.

✓ There exist two versions of this type of formwork. They are:

▪ The half tunnel formwork used to cast only one wall and slab

simultaneously

▪ The full tunnel formwork used to cast two walls and a slab

simultaneously

✓ The sequence of construction involves placing of reinforcement, electrical and

sanitary conduits along with the tunnel forms.

✓ Concrete is then poured and the open side of the forms is covered and hot air

blowers placed inside.

✓ The forms are removed the next day and placed on the next site using

cranes.

✓ The optimum use of tunnel form is in multiunit shear wall structure with

identical floor layout at each level.

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