EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF FIBRE REINFORCED CONCRETE USING HEMP FIBRE AND SILICA FUME

Boobalan S C, Karthik Raj S, Sandeep R

Abstract: Nowadays the construction and use of buildings are responsible for at least 50 percent of the CO2 emissions from human activity. Therefore using materials with a much lower environmental impact is crucial to reduce environmental damage and resource consumption. Designing and building with hemp fibre is a real demonstration of a total commitment to ‘saving the planet’ and protecting the health and well-being of a building’s occupants. In this study, special type of concrete such as fibre reinforced concrete is prepared and tested with silica fume and hemp fibre in various proportions. For each proportion of mix, standard sizes of cubes, cylinders and prisms were cast and tested for compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength at the age of 7 days and 28 days. The addition of silica fume shows early strength gaining property to the concrete and addition of hemp fibre reduces carbon dioxide emission from the construction. From the various proportions of concrete mix tested, finally 10% of silica fume and 0.5% of hemp fibre given the maximum strength to the concrete.

Keywords: Fibre reinforced concrete, Silica fume, Hemp fibre, etc.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2017.0606019