Abstract
Recently, the addition of natural fibers to high strength concrete (HSC) has been of great interest in the field of construction materials. Compared to artificial fibers, natural fibers are cheap and locally available. Among all natural fibers, coconut fibers have the greatest known toughness. In this work, the mechanical properties of coconut fiber reinforced high strength concrete (CFR-HSC) are explored. Silica fume (10% by mass) and super plasticizer (1% by mass) are also added to the CFR-HSC. The influence of 25 mm-, 50 mm-, and 75 mm-long coconut fibers and 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2% contents by mass is investigated. The microstructure of CFR-HSC is studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experimental results revealed that CFR-HSC has improved compressive, splitting-tensile, and flexural strengths, and energy absorption and toughness indices compared to HSC. The overall best results are obtained for the CFR-HSC having 50 mm long coconut fibers with 1.5% content by cement mass.
Highlights
IntroductionConcrete with higher strength and toughness is a requirement of construction industry [2]
All CFR-high strength concrete (HSC) showed decreased slump compared to HSC
The possible reasons are: (i) For 25 mm-long fibers, the fibers are more numerous, which decreases the workability of concrete; (ii) For 50 mm-long fibers, the fibers are less numerous, which results in increased slump, and (iii) For 75 mm-long fibers, the number of fibers further decreased, but longer fibers reduced the workability of concrete
Summary
Concrete with higher strength and toughness is a requirement of construction industry [2]. High strength concrete (HSC) has improved mechanical properties compared to normal strength concrete (NSC); it is more brittle [1]. In the civil engineering construction industry, HSC has a variety of applications. HSC decreases the dead load of structures and avoids larger sized columns [3]. HSC reduces the dead load of girders in long span bridges by reducing their section sizes, which reduces the size of piers [4]. With the evolution of the construction industry, there is a need for new types of concretes having improved properties such as high strength, energy absorption capacities, Materials 2020, 13, 1075; doi:10.3390/ma13051075 www.mdpi.com/journal/materials
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