Impact strength enhancement of banana fibre reinforced lightweight self-compacting concrete

Abstract

The research work was conducted to evaluate the potential enhancement of impact strength due to the addition of banana fibre in structural lightweight self-compacting concrete (LWSCC). The coconut shell was substituted instead of coarse aggregate partially to develop the lightweight concrete. The 28 and 90 days cured LWSCC specimens of M30, M40 and M50 grade was used in this study. The mix proportion of LWSCC was designed as ternary blended with rice husk ash (RHA) and micro silica (MS). In order to improve the impact strength of LWSCC, the banana fibres are supplemented in concrete at 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25 and 1.5% by volume of concrete. The impact strength of LWSCC was calculated by drop weight method in accordance with ACI committee 544 procedure. The performance of LWSCC on the impact strength was examined along with compressive strength and further developed the correlation among the compressive and impact strength of LWSCC. The results showed that there is no undesirable effect on the self-compatibility because of the addition of banana fibre and had shown the significant improvement in compressive strength. The additions of 1.25% banana fibres improve impact strength of LWSCC.