ABSTRACT
Over the years the cost of construction has skyrocketed along with the deteriorative impact on environment. The construction industry is revolutionizing in a significant manner in terms of materials used. Coconut fibre is available in abundance at the test site, which makes it quite viable as a reinforcement material in concrete. Further, it acts as a new source of income for the coconut producer who gets the benefits of the new demand generated by the construction industry. This led to me adopting coconut fibre as a substitute for steel in the reinforcement of concrete for my project
This study aimed at analysing the variation in strength of coconut fibre reinforced concrete at varying fibre contents and to compare it with that of normal concrete. The various strength aspects analysed are the flexural and compressive strength of coconut fibre reinforced concrete at varying percentages (1%, 3%, 5% by the weight of cement) of coconut fibre
The results for the compressive strength were; For conventional concrete shown in table 4-2 the average value gotten for the concrete for 7, 14, 28 days were 29.31, 31.951, 37.826 in N/mm2 respectively. For 1% addition of coconut fibre the average compressive strength for 7, 14, 28 days were 22.701, 30.662, 32.667 in N/mm2 respectively. For 3% addition of coconut fibre the average compressive strength for 7, 14, 28 days were (14.13,15.332,18.146)N/mm2 respectively. For 5% addition of coconut fibre the average compressive strength for 7, 14, 28 days were 7.465,
10.887, 9,253, N/mm2 respectively. Ordinary Portland cement was used with a mix design of
1:2:4 with various water-cement ratio of 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7.. The flexural strength was calculated
Fa 2 (Gurcharan S 2009). using the relationship between compressive strength 0.7 √ FckN /mm
