Developing Suitable Proportions For The Production of Pineapple Leaf Fibers Reinforced Normal Strength Concrete
Developing Suitable Proportions For The Production of Pineapple Leaf Fibers Reinforced Normal Strength Concrete
Developing Suitable Proportions For The Production of Pineapple Leaf Fibers Reinforced Normal Strength Concrete
http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojce
ISSN Online: 2164-3172
ISSN Print: 2164-3164
1. Introduction
The construction industry is one of rapidly growing industries across the world.
In this industry, concrete plays an inherent role and is the most widely used
manmade construction material. Concrete will continue to be the leading con-
struction material all over the world due to its versatile advantageous properties
such as good compressive strength, and high mould ability, plastic and malleable
when fresh and durable, impermeable and fire resistant when hardened [1] [2].
Concrete is therefore used for advanced applications, design and construction
techniques such as building houses, bridges, dams, pavements, stadiums, retain-
ing structures, airports and skyscrapers. However, NSC has some undesirable
properties like being weak in tension, brittleness, less resistance to cracking, low
impact resistance and heavy weight, hence there is a need to improve the con-
crete properties [3] [4]. Pineapple Leaf Fibers (PALF) are more compatible nat-
ural fiber resource and constitutes a good chemical composition [5]. PALF are a
vital natural fiber, which have a high specific strength, rigidity, flexural and tor-
sional rigidity than other fibers; seen all these advantages of PALF and since no
one has developed suitable proportion of production of PALF reinforced on
NSC it is time to try such fiber. Natural fibers have the advantages of low densi-
ty, low cost, and biodegradability. When concrete cracks, the randomly oriented
fibers start functioning, arrest crack formation and propagation, and thus im-
prove strength and ductility. Natural fibres from pineapple leaves are a good op-
tion to study because of their high tensile strength and high cellulose content [6].
The use of PALF reinforcement in construction materials can enhance structural
strength and toughness, and this can reduce cracking and shrinkage [7]. Hence
this study was made to develop a suitable proportion of production of PALF on
properties of NSC.
Test on Constituent materials of NSC Test on fresh and hardened NSC with PALF
were used. They were first washed to remove the dust and dirt, and then dried to
surface dry condition before use in the mix. The fine aggregates used was river
sand obtained locally from Meru, in Kenya and was then sieved through a 10
mm sieve to remove any coarse particle before use. The materials were batched
by weight at a ratio of 1:1.84:3.27 with respect to OPC: fine aggregates: coarse
aggregates with a constant water/cement ratio of 0.54, they were then mixed and
after PALF were added to the mix at percentages of 0%, 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8%,
and 1% of cement weight and finally water added to form a paste. On each fresh
mix of concrete both workability was determined using the slump test and com-
pacting factor was determined using two conical hoppers having a hinged trap
door attached to the lower end of each hopper, allowing the concrete sample to
flow freely into the cylindrical mould in accordance with BS EN 12390-6. The
mixture was then cast into greased cubes of 150 × 150 × 150 mm, cylinders of
150 mm diameter and 300 mm height and beams of and then compacted using a
poker vibrator after which was left to set for 24 hours and then demoulded and
placed in curing tanks for 7 days, 14 days and 28 days of curing period [9] [10].
The concrete cubes, the cylinders and beams were tested for compressive
strength, splitting tensile strength and flexural strength using the universal test-
ing machine at 7 days, 14 days and 28 days in accordance with European Stan-
dards of BS EN 12390-3 and Water absorption at 28 days accordance to BS EN
12350-3.
3. Material Characterization
3.1. Coarse and Fine Aggregates
The fine aggregates used was river sand sieved on a 10 mm BS sieve to remove
any coarse particles and the fine aggregates were ranging from 0.15 mm (150
µm) to 10 mm. The coarse aggregates used were crushed angular shaped rocks
ranging from 2.36 mm to 25 mm. Table 2 shows the physical properties of both
the coarse aggregates and the fine aggregates that were carried out. From these
results, the conclusion was made that both aggregates satisfied the standards and
therefore could be used in the production of Normal weight concrete reinforced
with PALF.
Source: BS EN 109-1.
Final Setting Time 229 min Not more than 600 min
Color Grey -
Source: BS EN 197-1.
sample smp wt glass wt glass + smp wt. A wt. B wt. C cellulose hemicellulose lignin
Source: The chemical properties (i.e., proportions of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) of the treated four (4) fibers samples were determined based the
procedure described by Direct method of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin [6] [13].
3.4. Water
Water Ordinary portable water conforming to BS 1348-2 (1980) available in the
laboratory with a pH of 8.1 was used in the study for mixing and curing of con-
crete mixes.
PALF added at percentages of 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8% and 1% had a percentage
increase in the water absorption of 9.82%, 23.21%, 31.25%, 37.50% and 47.32%
respectively as compared to the control mix (0% PALF). The increment in water
absorption as the PALF are increased could be as a result of the poor compaction
leading to poor bonding as a result of the smooth texture of the fibers and this
increased the number of pores in the concrete specimen causing it to absorb
more water.
5. Conclusions
From this experimental investigation, the following conclusions can be made:
1) PALF have shown that they can contribute to the construction field on
Normal strength Concrete, they can reduce cracks in the structure and improve
the tensile and flexure properties of NSC.
2) According to the experimental work, PALF reinforced NSC have a limita-
tion when their percentages increase more than 1% of cement weight, the Nor-
mal Strength Concrete will not be workable.
3) The best percentage to be used is from 0.2% to 0.8% because it is where the
slump was in range, it was found that PALF cannot be used to enhance com-
pressive strength and water absorption.
6. Recommendations
From this experimental study, the following recommendations were made: For
Possible Applications:
1) PALF can be utilized in Normal Strength Concrete to improve the split
tensile strength and flexural strength in the production of structural of NSC
especially where crack control is a concern especially in water retaining struc-
tures.
2) Further studies:
a) Investigations should be made on how to improve the bonding properties
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this pa-
per.
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