Experimental Study on the Mechanical Properties of Coconut Fibre Reinforced Lightweight Foamed Concrete

With the quest for green construction and affordable housing system for both the rural and urban population in Malaysia, various proposals focussing on cutting down conventional building material costs have been put forward. One of the suggestions in the vanguard has been the sourcing, development and use of alternative, non-conventional local construction materials including the prospect of using some agricultural wastes as construction materials. Foamed concrete is good in compression but weak in tension and tends to be brittle. The weakness in tension can be overcome by the inclusion of fibres. The use of fibres also alters the behaviour of the fibre-matrix composite after it has cracked, thereby improving its toughness. This research describes experimental studies on the use of coconut coir fiber as mechanical properties enhancement of foamed concrete which focuses on 3 parameters which are compressive strength, flexural strength and splitting tensile strength with different percentages of coconut fibre (0%, 0.2 % and 0.4%). The addition of coconut fiber significantly improved all the properties investigated. The results of the test showed that the compressive strength, flexural strength and splitting tensile strength of the foamed concrete increase as the fiber volume percentage of the coconut coir fiber increased in the concrete mix