Partial Replacement of Cement with Fly ash and Addition of Banana fibre in Concrete

Concrete is one of the materials that are widely used in construction all around the world. This material is widely used because it has several benefits such as more durable, energy-efficient, low maintenance, affordability, fire-resistance, excellent thermal mass and also versatility. My research is conducted to determine the properties of concrete, compressive strength, flexural strength and tensile strength of concrete, to produce good cementious material by using banana fiber. Agriculture waste material can help to increase the strength of concrete. The source of natural fiber are found in plant and they are readily environmental friendly and cheap. In addition, natural fiber ash has an excellent potential to improve the performance of concrete. In my study, compressive strength test was conducted to know the strength of concrete with three different temperatures. Banana trunk is cut layer by layer and bum in furnace with four different percentage compositions of banana fiber and fly ash. A total of 12 cubes with 150 mm x 150 mm x 150mm were used to determine the strength of concrete using banana fiber ash. All this specimens is cure for 7, 28 and 90 days using water curing method. 0.5% to 2% of banana fiber ash is added with fly ash 0-20% by weight. The materials use in my study is banana fiber ash, sand, cement, coarse aggregate, and water. The result analysis shows, the mix with 10% replacement of cement with fly ash achieved the maximum value of splitting tensile strength of 2.4 and 3.2 N/mm2 corresponding to 28 and 90 days of curing periods respectively. It was also concluded that specimen containing 10% replacement of cement with fly ash recorded increase in compressive strength of 27 N/mm2& 29 N/mm2 over the control specimen at 28 and 90 days of curing respectively. Specimens with 10% and 20% replacement of cement with fly ash achieved higher flexural strength than the plain concrete.