Compressive and flexural strength of concrete containing coconut fiber

Concrete is the most heavily used construction material in the world. Concrete is not a perfect material for construction, it has weaknesses that may limit its use in certain application. Despite of its high compressive strength, concrete is a brittle material with very low tensile strength. Thus, concrete should not generally loaded in tension, and reinforced steel must be used to carry tensile load. Concrete lack impact strength and toughness compared to metal [1]. There has been a steady increase in the use of short and randomly distributed natural fibres to reinforce the matrix (paste, mortar and concrete). Fibre alters the behaviour of concrete when a crack occurs by bridging across the cracks, and thus can provide some post-cracking toughness. Fibres crossing the crack guarantee a certain level of stress transfer between both faces of crack, providing a residual strength to the composite, whose magnitude depends on the fibre, matrix and fibre-matrix interface. The natural fibres are environment friendly as compared to the steel and synthetic fibres. Natural fibres, are low cost, and the coconut fibres are abundantly available in tropical regions [2]. Coconut fibres are derived from the husks of coconut fruit. They can be classified as the brown and white fibres. Usually in engineering application, the brown fibres used to reinforce different composites. It has good properties to be used as a concrete reinforcement material. Usually, the brown fibres are used in engineering applications to reinforce different composites [3]