A Comparative Study on Simple Concrete and Coconut Fiber Reinforced Concrete

When it comes to civil engineering, concrete is an inevitable building material. As we all know, concrete is good in compression but weaker under tensile forces, there is a need of concrete composites with better tensile strength. Also with the increasing global warming and pollution, need of the present world is environment friendly natural additives to cast concrete so as to minimize the pollution effect. Among natural fibers, coir fiber has maximum amount of lignin giving maximum tensile strength as well as are durable in nature. This paper presents an experimental study of coir fiber reinforced concrete and its strength comparison with plain cement concrete. Reinforcement of concrete is necessary to enhance its engineering properties. For this study, coconut fibers were used as they are freely available in large quantities. The study comprises of comparative statement of properties of coconut fiber reinforced concrete with conventional concrete based on experiments performed in the laboratory. The use of coconut fibers will also lead to better management of these best fibers. The study found the optimum fiber content to be 3% (by weight of cement) the addition of coconut fibers improved the compressive strength of concrete by about 12%, they also formed good bonding in the concrete. Further work is required by changing the fiber content and aspect ratio to determine the optimum range of fiber content so that fiber reinforced concrete can be used where high compressive and flexural strength required.