scholarly journals Mechanical Properties of Mortars Reinforced with Amazon Rainforest Natural Fibers

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Régis Pamponet da Fonseca ◽  
Janaíde Cavalcante Rocha ◽  
Malik Cheriaf

The addition of natural fibers used as reinforcement has great appeal in the construction materials industry since natural fibers are cheaper, biodegradable, and easily available. In this work, we analyzed the feasibility of using the fibers of piassava, tucum palm, razor grass, and jute from the Amazon rainforest as reinforcement in mortars, exploiting the mechanical properties of compressive and flexural strength of samples with 1.5%, 3.0%, and 4.5% mass addition of the composite binder (50% Portland cement + 40% metakaolin + 10% fly ash). The mortars were reinforced with untreated (natural) and treated (hot water treatment, hornification, 8% NaOH solution, and hybridization) fibers, submitted to two types of curing (submerged in water, and inflated with CO2 in a pressurized autoclave) for 28 days. Mortars without fibers were used as a reference. For the durability study, the samples were submitted to 20 drying/wetting cycles. The fibers improved the flexural strength of the mortars and prevented the abrupt rupture of the samples, in contrast to the fragile behavior of the reference samples. The autoclave cure increased the compressive strength of the piassava and tucum palm samples with 4.5% of fibers.

2020 ◽  
pp. 002199832097519
Author(s):  
Fatma Naiiri ◽  
Allègue Lamis ◽  
Salem Mehdi ◽  
Zitoune Redouane ◽  
Zidi Mondher

Natural fibers are increasingly used in composites because of their low cost and good mechanical properties. Cement reinforced with natural fibersis contemplates as a new generation of construction materials with superior mechanical and thermal performance. This study of three sizes’effect of Doum palm fiber explores the mortar’s behavior reinforced with different fiber ratio. The aim is to determine the optimal addition to improve mechanical and thermal properties of natural fiber reinforced cements. Physical, mechanical and thermal properties of composite are examined. Tensile properties of Doum fibers are verified to determine their potential as reinforced material. Findings prove that the use of alkali-treated Doum fiber as reinforcement in cement mortar composite leads to the upgrading of the mechanical properties including thermo-physical properties against composites reinforced with raw fibers and control cement mortars. While, the compression and flexural strength of the cement mortar reinforced with alkali-treated Doum fiber with diameter 0.3 mm (CT3) are metered to be 11.11 MPa, 5.22 MPa, respectively for fiber content 0.5%. Additionally, based on thermo-physical tests, it is assessed that the thermal conductivity and diffusivity decrease for cement mortar reinforced with Doum fiber with diameter 0.2 mm (CT2).


2018 ◽  
Vol 773 ◽  
pp. 94-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Venitalitya Augustia ◽  
Achmad Chafidz ◽  
Lucky Setyaningsih ◽  
Muhammad Rizal ◽  
Mujtahid Kaavessina ◽  
...  

The trend of using natural fibers as green filler in the fabrication of polymer composites is increasing. One of these natural fibers is date palm fiber (DPF). Date palm fiber is considered as agricultural waste in certain areas, such as Middle East countries. Therefore, the utilization of this fiber in the composites fabrication is an interesting topic of research. In the current study, composites were prepared by melt blending DPF with high density polyethylene (HDPE). Five different DPF loadings were studied (i.e. 0, 5, 10, 20, 30 wt%). The effect of the DPF loadings on the mechanical properties and water absorption behavior of the composites were investigated. The tensile test result showed that tensile strengths of all the composites samples were all higher than the neat HDPE with the maximum improvement was achieved at the DPF loading of 5 wt% (i.e. DFC-5), which was about 19.23 MPa (138% higher than the neat HDPE). Whereas, the flexural test result showed that the flexural strength of the composites slightly increased compared to that of the neat HDPE only until 5 wt% DPF loading (i.e. DFC-5). Afterward, the flexural strength of the DFC-10 was equal to that of the neat HDPE, and decreasing with further increase of DPF loadings. Additionally, the water absorption test result showed that the water absorption rate and uptake of water (at equilibrium) increased with the increase of DPF loading.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 4801
Author(s):  
Yasir Khaleel Kirmasha ◽  
Mohaiman J. Sharba ◽  
Zulkiflle Leman ◽  
Mohamed Thariq Hameed Sultan

Fiber composites are known to have poor through-thickness mechanical properties due to the absence of a Z-direction binder. This issue is more critical with the use of natural fibers due to their low strength compared to synthetic fibers. Stitching is a through-thickness toughening method that is used to introduce fibers in the Z-direction, which will result in better through-thickness mechanical properties. This research was carried out to determine the mechanical properties of unstitched and silk fiber-stitched woven kenaf-reinforced epoxy composites. The woven kenaf mat was stitched with silk fiber using a commercial sewing machine. The specimens were fabricated using a hand lay-up method. Three specimens were fabricated, one unstitched and two silk-stitched with deferent stitching orientations. The results show that the stitched specimens have comparable in-plane mechanical properties to the unstitched specimens. For the tensile mechanical test, stitched specimens show similar and 17.1% higher tensile strength compared to the unstitched specimens. The flexural mechanical test results show around a 9% decrease in the flexural strength for the stitched specimens. On the other hand, the Izod impact mechanical test results show a significant improvement of 33% for the stitched specimens, which means that stitching has successfully improved the out-of-plane mechanical properties. The outcome of this research indicates that the stitched specimens have better mechanical performance compared to the unstitched specimens and that the decrease in the flexural strength is insignificant in contrast with the remarkable enhancement in the impact strength.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-47
Author(s):  
Patrik Permana Putra Wijaya ◽  
Juliana Anggono

Natural fibers used in the fabrication of biocomposite product can support the need of the industries for lightweight yet strong material. Sugarcane bagasse is one of the available natural fibers in Indonesia. There have been some research done on these bagasse fibers as reinforcement materials for plastics and their incorporation to the matrix has improved its strength. This research aimed to evaluate the fabrication of a car package tray prototype. The composition and the bagasse were prepared in accordance with the previous research in which the bagasse were alkali treated using NaOH solution of 8 wt% for one hour at room temperature. The hotpressed prototype was evaluated by its physical outlook and the mechanical property of its preform. The flexural test shows a low flexural strength of the prototype (7.4 MPa) compared to the required strength of the current material (woodboard) used by the industry (35.58 MPa). The evaluation shows the clustering of bagasse fibers, uneven distribution of sugarcane/PP in the structure and low adhesion at the interfacial region between bagasse fibers and PP.


2019 ◽  
pp. 205-214
Author(s):  
Ikumapayi C. M. ◽  
Adeniji A. A. ◽  
Obisesan A. A. ◽  
Odeyemi O. ◽  
Ajayi J. A.

Concrete is one of the reliable, durable, economical and acceptable construction materials among the building and construction stakeholders worldwide. Performance of concrete could be threatened especially reinforced concrete by some processes such as corrosion, sulfate attack among others. Corrosion of reinforcement in reinforced concrete can be induced by carbonation process. Even though carbonation initiates corrosion, it has been gathered that carbonation could still be of immense benefits to building and construction industries if its mechanism of operation is understudied. This research work has therefore investigated the effect of carbonation on some selected mechanical properties of concrete such as compressive strength, flexural strength, water absorption and weight changes. Concrete cubes and beams of M15 grade with 0.5 % water-cement ratio were prepared and subjected to accelerated carbonation. Their compressive strength, flexural strength, water absorption and weight changes were determined in accordance with the relevant standards. The outcomes show that carbonation improves all the mechanical properties investigated. The use of carbonation can be positively explored in reinforced concrete provided there is adequate nominal cover.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 6972-6977

The use of natural fiber composite has been widely promoted in many industries such as construction, automotive and even aerospace. Natural fibers can be extracted from plants that are abundantly available in the form of waste such as sunflower seed shells (SSS) and groundnut shells (GNS). These fibers were chosen as the reinforcement in epoxy to form composites. The performance of composites was evaluated following the ASTM D3039 and ASTM D790 for tensile and flexural tests respectively. Eight types of composites were prepared using SSS and GNS fibers as reinforcement and epoxy as the matrix with the fiber content of 20wt %. The fibers were untreated and treated with Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) at various concentrations (6%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) and soaking time (24, 48 and 72 hours). The treatment has successfully enhanced the mechanical properties of both composites, namely SSS/epoxy and GNS/epoxy composites. The SSS/epoxy composite has the best mechanical properties when the fibers were treated for 48 hours using 6% of NaOH that produced 22 MPa and 13 MPa of tensile and flexural strength respectively. Meanwhile, the treatment on groundnut shells with 10% sodium Hydroxide for 24 hours has increased the Flexural strength tremendously (53%), however no significant effect on the tensile strength. The same trend was also observed on the tensile and flexural modulus. The increase of 41% in flexural modulus after treatment with 10% NaOH for 24 hours was also the evidence of mechanical properties enhancement. The evidence of improved fiber and matrix bonding after fiber treatment was also observed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The SSS/epoxy composites performed better in tensile application, meanwhile the GNS/epoxy composites are good in flexural application.


2021 ◽  
Vol 895 ◽  
pp. 41-49
Author(s):  
Ali Abbas Kadhem ◽  
Hayder Abbas Al-Yousefi ◽  
Qusay A. Jabal

This investigation aims to use corn cover as natural fibers in concrete mixes to improve some mechanical properties like compressive strength, tensile strength, and flexural strength. using any type of fiber in concrete, in general, can improve the tensile and flexural strength of concrete. Concrete is weak in tension, so using fibers such as natural fibers like trunk fibers or industrial fibers such as steel fibers can improve tensile, the flexural strength of concrete and that may be decreasing the use of steel reinforcement in concrete, and also fibers can improve toughness and ductility of concrete because of its work inside the concrete that can reduce the propagation of cracks under loading. This study shows slight improvement on compressive strength by using fibers, but high increments in flexural strength, the optimum ratio of corn cover fibers was 2.5% by weight of cement which gives the highest values in compressive strength and flexural strength. compressive strength increased from (31.2 to 35.9) MPa (about 15% increment), increment for flexural strength was 70.6% for the optimum fibers content and the failure by using corn fibers was a ductile failure compared with plain concrete that gives sudden failure under flexure load, also tensile strength increased by using fibers, more fibers content beyond or more than 2.5% give lower values for the mechanical properties.


Author(s):  
Gino Ng ◽  
Girum Urgessa ◽  
Yared Shifferaw ◽  
Harianto Hardjasaputra

The use of natural fibers in concrete has significantly increased in recent years as a result of the push for sustainable construction. Coconut fibers, also known as coir fibers, have been used as natural fibers in concrete, particularly in some parts of Asia. This paper presents an experimental study that investigates the use of coconut fibers in concrete. Two baseline concrete mix designs were selected based on design standards with a water-cement ratio of 0.4 and 0.5 respectively. For each baseline mix design, four 20 cm x 20 cm x 1 cm concrete plates were constructed by varying the percentage of coconut fibers by weight of cement. The fiber contents studied are 0%, 0.1%, 0.175%, and 0.25%. The concrete plates were then tested to determine the mechanical properties of the coconut fiber-reinforced concrete and comparisons were made with the mix designs with 0% coconut fiber content. The results show that adding coconut fibers increases the flexural strength of concrete plates. This is particularly beneficial for low scale construction applications such as those in concrete tile production. For both mix designs, adding 0.25% of coconut fibers increased the flexural strength of the concrete plates by 90% when compared to concrete with no coconut fibers.


2015 ◽  
Vol 660 ◽  
pp. 23-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romisuhani Ahmad ◽  
Mohd Mustafa Al Bakri Abdullah ◽  
Kamarudin Hussin ◽  
Andrei Victor Sandu ◽  
Mohammed Binhussain ◽  
...  

The effect of solid-to-liquid ratio and temperature on the mechanical properties of kaolin geopolymer ceramics are studied. Kaolin and alkaline activator were mixed with the solid-to-liquid ratio in the range of 0.8-1.2. Alkaline activator was formed by mixing the 12 M NaOH solution with sodium silicate at a ratio of 0.24. Kaolin geopolymer ceramic have been produced by using powder metallurgy (PM) technique. The samples were heated at different temperature started from 900 °C until 1200 °C and the strength were tested. The relative density and flexural strength of sintered sample range approximately 84%-95% and 20-90 MPa respectively. The result revealed that the optimum flexural strength was obtained at solid-to-liquid ratio of 1.0 and the samples heated at 1200 °C achieved the highest flexural strength (90 MPa).


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