Performance of bamboo fibre as reinforcement in concrete /
Lee Yong Chuan
- xii, 62 pages : illustrations ; 30 cm. + 1 CD-ROM
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Earth Resources
Project Paper (Bachelors of Civil Engineering) -- Universiti Malaysia Pahang – 2018
Includes bibliographical references
Concrete is a composite material of granular materials embedded in the cement matrix which fills the spaces and voids among the aggregate particles and glue them together to form concrete. Concrete is an important material used in construction for its various advantages such as low cost, availability, fire resistance and high compressive strength. Plain concrete is a relatively brittle material where the structural cracks will be developed even before loadings are applied due to drying shrinkage and other factors. The application of external load will lead to further propagation of existing cracks and eventually open up caused by stress and the newly formed additional cracks. Fibres are commonly used in concrete to control the propagation of micro cracks, shrinkage and to improve the strength and performance of concrete. Generally, there are two types of fibre including artificial and natural fibres are used in concrete mix to improve its strength and crack control. The present of fibres in concrete is to provide another form of bonding between concrete cement matrix, bridging over the cracks to improve the ductility of concrete. Recently, the use of natural fibres has gradually gained concerns in emphasizing the adoption of sustainable construction and green building. The experimental works in this study include to determine the workability of concrete mixed with 1.0 %, 1.25 %, 1.5 % and 2.0 % of bamboo fibre with constant fibre length. Secondly, the mechanical properties of bamboo fibre reinforced concrete in term of compressive and flexural strength were determined. Finally, the performance of bamboo fibre reinforced concrete with normal concrete in term of workability, compressive and flexural strength were evaluated. The bamboo was extracted into fibres by using both chemical and mechanical methods. Once the bamboo fibres were extracted, the length of the bamboo fibres was made constant. These fibres were dispersed into concrete cement matrix during mixing process in various percentages including 1 %, 1.25 %. 1.5 % and 2 %. Curing process was done for both cube and beams samples for required period. Experimental investigations such as compressive and flexural tests were carried out for cube and beam samples respectively. From the various test results, the optimum fibre weight to cement percentage and performance of bamboo fibre usage in concrete had been evaluated. From the results, the addition of bamboo fibre in concrete mix drastically decreased the workability of freshly mixed concrete due to water absorption characteristics of bamboo fibre. In term of compressive strength, the maximum compressive strength for bamboo fibre reinforced concrete of 40.37 MPa was achieved at fibre weight to cement percentage of 2.0 %. The compressive strength of bamboo fibre reinforced concrete with 2.0 % bamboo fibre increased only 3.33 % as compared to the compressive strength of normal concrete. In term of flexural strength, the maximum flexural strength for bamboo fibre reinforced concrete beam of 8.35 MPa was achieved at fibre weight to cement percentage of 2.0 %. The flexural strength of concrete reinforced with 2.0 % of bamboo fibre had been increased 27.48 % as compared to plain concrete beam. Hence, it is concluded that bamboo fibre is an effective natural reinforcing material used to improve the mechanical properties of plain concrete. However, the improvement in concrete flexural strength is more significant as compared to the improvement in term of compressive strength.
THE0008168(Local)
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Earth Resources--Dissertations