Experimental Investigation on the Mechanical Properties of Natural Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Recently, addition of various natural fibers to high strength concrete has aroused great interest in the field of building materials. This is because natural fibers are much cheaper and locally available, as compare to synthetic fibers. Keeping in view, this current research conducted mainly focuses on the static properties of hybridized (sisal/coir), sisal and coir fiber-reinforced concrete. Two types of natural fibers sisal and coir were used in the experiment with different lengths of 10, 20 and 30 mm and various natural fiber concentrations of 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5% by mass of cement, to investigate the static properties of sisal fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC), coir fiber reinforced concrete (CFRC) and hybrid fiber reinforced concrete (HFRC). The results indicate that HFRC has increased the compressive strength up to 35.98% with the length of 20 mm and with 0.5% concentration, while the CFRC and SFRC with the length of 10 mm and with 1% concentration have increased the compressive strength up to 33.94% and 24.86%, respectively. On another hand, the split tensile strength was increased by HFRC with the length of 20 mm and with 1% concentration, CFRC with the length of 10 mm and with 1.5% concentration, and SFRC with the length of 30 mm and with 1% concentration have increased up to 25.48%, 24.56% and 11.80%, respectively, while the HFRC with the length of 20 mm and with 0.5% concentration has increased the compressive strength of concrete but has decreased the split tensile strength up to 2.28% compared to PC. Overall, using the HFRC with the length of 20 mm and with 1% concentration provide the maximum output in terms of split tensile strength.