Abstract
Rapid drying shrinkage is an important factor in causing cracks of concrete. This research was aimed at studying the effects of Palm Oil Empty Fruited Bunch (POEFB) fibre on the drying shrinkage behaviour and compressive strength of foamed concrete (FC) under two different curing conditions. The adopted curing conditions were air curing and tropical natural weather curing. Two volume fractions of POEFB fibre were used, which were 0.25% and 0.50% based on dry mix weight with 1-2 cm in length. The dimensional stability of the control specimen and POEFB fibre reinforced FCs was obtained by cumulating the measured linear shrinkage or expansion due to different curing conditions. The results from the two different specimens were compared. The results showed that specimens reinforced with POEFB fibre and cured under tropical natural weather condition attained lesser variations of dimensional stability and higher 90-day strength performance index than the reference mix without POEFB fibre. This improvement was attributed to the ability of POEFB fibre to bridge the cement matrix, and irregular wetting process under tropical natural weather curing condition had enabled more production of Calcium Silicate Hydrate gels that gradually blocked the penetration of water into the specimens and increased the compressive strength. It is observed that 11.43% and 4.46% of improvement in 90-day strength performance index were obtained in natural weather cured 0.5% of POEFB fibre reinforced specimen, with corresponded to the reference mix and 0.25% of POEFB fibre reinforced specimens, respectively.
Highlights
It is commonly known that foamed concrete (FC) has the advantages of giving lighter dead load, higher thermal insulation characteristic and better acoustical properties than those normal weight concrete
Several researchers [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] have successfully provided a viable solution by adding fibres as the reinforcing agent to enhance the mechanical properties and dimensional stability of lightweight concrete
The optimum quantity of fibres has to be investigated prior adding into cement matrix
Summary
It is commonly known that foamed concrete (FC) has the advantages of giving lighter dead load, higher thermal insulation characteristic and better acoustical properties than those normal weight concrete. Several researchers [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] have successfully provided a viable solution by adding fibres as the reinforcing agent to enhance the mechanical properties and dimensional stability of lightweight concrete. According to Brandt [9], opening and propagation of micro-cracks in a concrete can be effectively controlled by introducing short dispersed fibres in cement matrix. Long fibres (50-80 mm) are much able to control larger cracks and contribute to higher final strength. The reasons are high volume of fibre content leads to conglomeration of fibre during the composite mixing, while too little fibre content is unable to provide sufficient reinforcing mechanism in cement matrix
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