Development of cement composite reinforced with coconut fibre and expanded polystyrene beads

Abstract

In this research, polystyrene and coconut fibre was introduced into the concrete to form fibre reinforced concrete, where the polystyrene plays an important role to reduce the weight of the concrete while the coconut fibre provide additional reinforcement to enhances the properties of the concrete. In this project the properties of the polystyrene and coconut fibre reinforced concrete were studied. Different proportion of polystyrene and coconut fibre was design to know the optimum proportion and to study the effect of the raw material to the mechanical and physical properties of the concrete. Coconut fruit are light, buoyant and highly water resistant, and evolved to disperse significant distances via marine currents while, polystyrene is made from petroleum, non-sustainable and non-renewable. Coconut fibre is extracted from coconut husk which is the unwanted part from the coconut itself after has been peel off. Different proportion of raw material was introduced into the concrete to determine the optimum proportions. Several tests like density water absorption and compressive strength test was done to study the effects of coconut fibre and polystyrene. Meanwhile, optical microscope is used to observe the structure of the concrete. From the table of result at 28 days, the best sample is sample C that is with density 1.72kg/m3 and compression strength is 10.06 MPa. This is achieved when polystyrene is introduced, the density is reduced and with the coconut fibre that give reinforcement to the concrete that gives strength.