Strength of Various Densities of Lightweight Coir Fiber Concrete Containing Protein and Synthetic Foam

Abstract

Lightweight concrete which was proposed normally to reduce the dead load of ordinary concrete has become very popular among researcher. One of the lightweight concrete is known as lightweight foam concrete. This type of concrete can support lesser load compared to ordinary concrete. Thus, a lot of study has been conducted to increase the strength of lightweight foam concrete. Fiberglass has been introduced to increase the strength of lightweight foam concrete, however, it is not an environmental friendly product. Therefore, in this study natural fiber named as coir fiber has been used to strengthen the foam concrete. A total of 18 cube samples with 100 × 100 × 100 mm size have been produced. The samples have been produced using protein and synthetic foaming agent and comparison on compressive strength have been made. Different densities of concrete were considered in this study which are 1400, 1600 and 1800 kg/m3. A compressive strength testing machine was used to obtain the strength of these 18 cube samples at 28 days of water curing. Results on compressive strength have been compared between the lightweight coir fiber concrete containing protein and synthetic foam of various densities. The relationships indicate that the increment of concrete density has increased the strength of lightweight fiber concrete containing protein and synthetic foam. Besides, the strength of lightweight fiber concrete containing synthetic foam is higher than protein foam.