Properties of concrete reinforced with plantain bunch fibre.

      Аннотация: This research describes experimental study into the properties of concrete reinforced with plantain bunch fibre (PBF) composites. A mix proportion of 1:1.5:3 with four different fractions of PBF namely: 0.00%, 0.25%, 0.50% and 0.75% by weight of cement and three different water cement ratio of 0.45, 0.50 and 0.55. An aspect ratio of 100 was used for all the mixes. 100 cubes of size 150mm x 150mm x150mm and 100cylinders having diameter of 100mm and height of 200mm were casted. Test conducted were density, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and toughness. The density of the control specimen was 2635kg/m3. There was decrease in density of 2.28% when 0.75%fibre content was added. Generally addition of fibres adversely affected the density. This may be attributed to the fact that fibre which has lighter weight replaced the cement matrix of the concrete hence lighter density. Similar trend was recorded for the compressive strength. The control specimen recorded the highest compressive strength of about 41.08MPa among the fibre reinforced concrete. However the additions of fibre improve the splitting tensile strength.The tensile strength of the control specimen was 3.21MPa.

Ключевые слова: civil and building works, Structures, Research work