Investigation of mechanical properties of mud concrete with coconut fiber reinforcement

Abstract

Mud concrete was a sustainable innovation, invented to replace existing conventional construction materials with sustainable material. Mud concrete consists of soil and cement along with water. In terms of sustainable construction, cement which act as the stabilizer in mud concrete should be kept lesser as much as possible, according to its potential environmental issues. Therefore, evaluation of ability to enhance the mud concrete properties by adding some admixtures is essential. There are no of admixtures used in the construction industry with many forms, such as liquid, solid, semisolid or fiber. In most of the studies fiber was used as an admixture to improve the strength performance of construction materials. Hence, evaluate the strength performance of mud concrete with fiber is important to reduce cement in sustainability contest. Therefore, this study was investigated the effect of natural fiber length on compressive strength and strength variation with water content of mud concrete with fiber. According to the results, the highest strength was recorded with the fiber length of 60 mm and the compressive strength was decreasing with the increasing water content. The study concluded that the optimum fiber length is 60 mm and there is a negative correlation between compressive strength and water content.