Mechanical Characterization of Foamed Concrete Reinforced with Natural Fibre

$12.50

Mechanical Characterization of Foamed Concrete Reinforced with Natural Fibre

E.A. Flores-Johnson, Y.Z. Yan, J.G. Carrillo, P.I. González-Chi, P.J. Herrera-Franco, Q.M. Li

Abstract. In this work, an experimental investigation of the mechanical properties of foamed concrete with and without fibre reinforcement is presented. To reinforce the foamed concrete, natural fibres, i.e., henequen and coir fibres were used. Target dry density of 800 kg/m3 was investigated. Plain foamed concrete without fibre reinforcement was also studied. Quasi-static uniaxial compressive tests were performed on foamed concrete samples. It is found that while the henequen fibre-reinforcement enhances slightly the mechanical behaviour of the foamed concrete, the coir fibre reinforcement results in a reduction of mechanical performance when compared with plain foam concrete. This observation is explained by transfer of load from the matrix to the fibres, which indicates that the fibre/matrix bonding plays an important role in the structural performance of reinforced foamed concrete. Differences of density in the foamed concrete samples can also explain the difference in mechanical performance. The results show that this light material has the potential to be used as a core for the design of sandwich panel for construction structural applications; however, the results in this study are limited and further research has to be carried out to fully understand this type of material.

Keywords
Foamed Concrete, Natural Fibre, Mechanical Property

Published online , 6 pages
Copyright © 2018 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA

Citation: E.A. Flores-Johnson, Y.Z. Yan, J.G. Carrillo, P.I. González-Chi, P.J. Herrera-Franco, Q.M. Li, ‘Mechanical Characterization of Foamed Concrete Reinforced with Natural Fibre’, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 7, pp 1-6, 2018

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21741/9781945291838-1

The article was published as article 1 of the book Non-Conventional Materials and Technologies

References
[1] Narayanan N, Ramamurthy K. Structure and properties of aerated concrete: a review. Cem Concr Compos 2000;22(5):321-329. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0958-9465(00)00016-0
[2] Jones MR, McCarthy A. Preliminary views on the potential of foamed concrete as a structural material. Mag Concr Res 2005;57(1):21-31. https://doi.org/10.1680/macr.2005.57.1.21
[3] Flores-Johnson EA, Li QM. Structural behaviour of composite sandwich panels with plain and fibre-reinforced foamed concrete cores and corrugated steel faces. Compos Struct 2012; 94(5):1555-1563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2011.12.017
[4] Faruk O, Bledzki AK, Fink H-P, Sain M, Progress Report on Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites. Macromol Mater Eng 2014; 299: 9–26. https://doi.org/10.1002/mame.201300008
[5] Othuman Mydin MA, Wang YC. Structural performance of lightweight steel-foamed concrete–steel composite walling system under compression. Thin Walled Struct 2011;49(1):66-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2010.08.007
[6] Othuman Mydin MA, Rozlan NA, Ganesan S. Experimental Study on the Mechanical Properties of Coconut Fibre Reinforced Lightweight Foamed Concrete, J Mater Environ Sci 2015;6(2):407-411.
[7] Herrera-Franco PJ, Valadez-González A. Mechanical properties of continuous natural fibre-reinforced polymer composites. Compos Part A 2004; 35(3):339-345. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2003.09.012
[8] Herrera-Franco PJ, Valadez-González A. A study of the mechanical properties of short natural-fiber reinforced composites. Compos Part B 2005; 36(8):597-608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2005.04.001