Effect of plant fiber type and content on the strength and durability performance of high-strength concrete

Abstract

Besides obvious ductility benefits, low-energy, and sustainable development of FRC is still a major challenge. Plant-based fibers owing to their lower costs and minimal embodied carbon have attracted huge interest in concrete technology. This experimental study explored the effects of using different types of plant fibers in HSC. Three fibers namely JF, BF, and CF were used in HSC at varying volume fractions (0%, 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4%, and 0.5%). The performance of plant fibers in HSC was compared with that of PF. According to the findings, the workability decreased with the rise in plant fiber content and JF addition was more deleterious to workability as compared to other plant fibers. JF yielded slightly better results than synthetic PF and other plant fibers in CS. In STS and FS, both BF and JF yielded a better performance as compared to synthetic PF and CF. The recommended dose of plant fibers for maximum STS and FS is 0.3% by volume. At a volume of 0.3%, ‘BF’, ‘JF’ and ‘CF’ resulted in net increases of 20%, 24% and 15% in STS of plain HSC, respectively. In the case of FS, 0.3% volume of BF, JF and CF yielded net increases of 25%, 23%, and 17.5%, respectively. Generally, a higher volume fraction (>0.5%) of plant fibers was harmful to the imperviousness and capillary resistance of HSC. This study encourages the application of silica fume and a superplasticizer to control the negative effects of plant fibers on HSC mixes.