Mechanical Properties of Prosopis Juliflora Fiber Reinforced Concrete

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ABSTRACT

Natural fibers enhance the engineering properties of concrete and due to their low cost and abundant availability it constantly gaining attention in construction industry.This research paper describes the experimental work conducted on Juliflora fiber-reinforced concrete to evaluate the mechanical properties of hardened concrete. Juliflora fibers are available abundantly in nature, causing serious environmental and economic problems to all livelihoods in many developing countries. Hence, these natural fibers could be effectively utilized in concrete composites to improve their hardened properties. In this paper, three different volume fractions 0.25%, 0.5%, and 0.75% of juliflora fibers were chosen and its influence on mechanical properties such compressive strength, impact strength, and modulus of elasticity were determined. Slump test results show that workability of juliflora fiber-reinforced concrete is closer to control concrete. By incorporating this fiber content, the compressive strength at 28 days is reduced up to 13%, and impact strength is enhanced 1.42 to 2.00 folds higher than no fiber concrete. Elastic modulus properties are significantly affected by the juliflora fibers and based on the test results, it is concluded that 0.25% volume fraction as the optimum fiber content. Young’s modulus values show good agreement with other theoretical models.

Acknowledgments

The authors sincerely thank National Engineering College, Department of Civil Engineering for providing the laboratory facilities to carry out this experimental work.