6th International Conference and Workshop on the Built Environment in Developing Countries, 4-5 December 2012, Adelaide, Australia

DURABILITY PROPERTIES OF COCONUT FIBRE REINFORCED

CONCRETE IN SEA WATER ENVIRONMENT

Wai Hoe Kwan1, Mahyuddin Ramli2 and Noor Faisal Abas3

School of Housing, Building and Planning
Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia
1
kwanwaihoe@hotmail.com; 2mahyudin@usm.my; 3nfaisal@usm.my

ABSTRACT

Marine structures are suffered from the seawater attacks for decades. Till present, the best
approach is to use high strength high performance concrete which is low in permeability.
Nevertheless, this approach is limited by the crack formations arise from the severe environment
attacks. The alternate wetting and drying happens at the splash zone would impose expansion
and shrinkage to the structure. Meanwhile the part of the structure that is fully immersed in the
seawater would suffer from sulphate attack. Both attacks would result formation of cracks and
subsequently the durability of the structure is drastically reduced due to the penetration of harmful
substances. By taking the advantage of short discontinuous fibres which provide localize
reinforcing effects to the matrix, thus concept of fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) is introduced into
high strength concrete. This becomes the core objective of this experiment which is to enhance
the strength and durability of the concrete in the aggressive environment. Coconut fibre is cheap
and abundant in developing countries like Malaysia. Therefore, it is used for preparing FRC
specimens. The specimens were exposed to two different exposure conditions after receiving 28
days of water curing; (i) alternate air and seawater in 14 days cycle of exposure (4 days wetting +
10 days drying) (N-series) and (ii) continuous immersion in the seawater (W-series). Specimens
were examined for compressive strength while the durability properties were evaluated by the
intrinsic permeability and porosity tests. The mineralogical and microstructures were studied by
the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) examination. The coconut
fibre reinforced concrete (C-FRC) containing 1.8% of coconut fibre (CF) has shown the highest
compressive strength in N-series while the C-FRC specimens registered lower strength than that
of the CTRL in W-series. For the permeability properties, all C-FRC specimens exhibited showed
an increasing trend with the increasing fibre content. For comparisons between N and W-series,
all specimens in W-series showed lower permeability values in long term. In term of porosity, all
C-FRC specimens were also more porous than the CTRL. The porosity increased with the
increasing fibre content and decreased with the exposure period. In general, the concept of fibre
reinforced concrete encourages better strength achievements in aggressive environment.
Nevertheless, it is compensate by the degradation of the coconut fibres. Taking a balance
consideration with all parameters, the dosage of the CF should not exceeding 1.2% in order to
gain the maximum benefits brought by the discontinuous CF.

Keywords: Coconut fibre, Permeability, Porosity, XRD, SEM,

ISBN 978-0-646-58814-8 295 Copyright © ICBEDC 2012

1. INTRODUCTION
The seawater exposure may often regards as aggressive environments. It
comprises of chloride penetrations, sulphate attack, salt crystallizations, wetting-
drying cycles at splash zone or tidal zones and etc. The sulphate attacks will
cause the formations of ettringite and gypsum which are expansive in nature.
Therefore, extra internal pressure will be induced in the hardened matrix and
ultimately resulting in formation of cracks. The same mechanism applies in salt
crystallization too, since the salt crystals occupy larger volume in the matrix.
(Neville, 2004; Taylor, 1997) In addition, the rapid volume changes induce at the
tidal zone and splash zone of the structures will also initiate the formation of
cracks.
Previous studies have shown that incorporation of short discrete fibres into
the concrete has significantly improve their properties by enhancing the
toughness, ductility and integrity of the matrix, shear strength, energy absorption
capacity, damage tolerance in flexural and etc. (Eswari, Raghunath, & Suguna,
2008; Ko¨ksal, Altun, Yig˘it, & Sahin, 2008; Parra-Montesinos, 2005; Zollo, 1997)
Besides that, the fibre can also control the cracks development and minimize
volume change (better dimension stability) on the concrete. (Brandt, 2008; Reis,
2006; Shabeen, A. Emam, & M. Metwally, 2011; Tatnall, 2006) Thus, the
objectives of this study are to examine the contributions of fibre in enhancing
strength and durability properties of high strength concrete in seawater
environment. The selection of coconut fibres is in conjunction with the
sustainability concept and the sources are abundant in Malaysia.

2. EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM
The blended of ASTM Type I Portland cement and condensed silica fume
formed the binder phase for the matrix. Fines in the river sand were eliminated
and the particles in the size of 600 µm – 4.75 mm were used. The maximal size
of the coarse aggregate is 19 mm. Sulphonated based superplasticizer was
added to achieve workable mix. There were total of 5 mixes were prepared for
this study and their mix proportions were remained unchanged; only the fibre
content varies from 0% until 2.4%. Each has an interval of 0.6%. The plain
specimen (without fibre) is denoted as CTRL while the 0.6CF, 1.2CF, 1.8CF,
and 2.4CF are the specimens containing barchip fibre, each denoted according
to the fibre content. For example, the 0.6CF is the specimen containing 0.6% of
coconut fibre. The percentage of the fibre content is calculated based on the

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binder volume. The specifications of the coconut fibres are presented in table 1.
The percentage of the fibre content is determined based on the binder volume
The previous study has established the early age performance of the coconut
fibre reinforced concrete (C-FRC) with different fibre contents. They were cured
in the polyvinyl tank and tested at the age of 28 days. The data is summarized in
table 2. This is an extension work from the previous study. The same batch of
specimens was took out from the curing tank and exposed to sea water; one set
was in wetting-drying cycles (N-series) and another set was totally immersed in
the seawater (W-series). The N-series is in 14 days cycle, 4 days in sea water,
and another 10 days in tropical air. The compositions of the seawater were
studied by chromatographic method and presented in table 3. The seawater was
refreshed every two months. In table 5, fresh seawater refers to the seawater
that was just obtained from the sea while the used seawater is the one that have
been used to contained specimens for 2 months. Testing was carried out at the
exposure period of 3, 6, 12 and 18 months. The parameters in the study include
compressive strength, permeability, porosity, X-ray diffractions (XRD) and
scanning electron microscopy (SEM) examination. Both XRD and SEM
examination were carried out using the most extreme specimens, i.e. 2.4CF with
the exposure period of 18 months. The samples for the XRD test were obtained
from outer surface of the prism and grounded into very fine powder. Meanwhile
for the SEM examination, the samples were carefully cored from the outer
surface of the prism, polished and then coated with aurum.
Compressive strength test were performed in accordance to BS EN 12390-
3:2009 while the permeability test was carried out using Leeds cell permeameter.
The detail of the permeability test should refer to the references. (Cabrera &
Lynsdale, 1988; (Kwan, Ramli, Kam, & Sulieman, 2012) The intrinsic
permeability of the specimens was determined by the following expression:
2 .
(1)
1 2

Where, K is intrinsic permeability, m2, P1 is absolute applied pressure

bars (pressure used + atmosphere pressure) usually 2 bars, P2 is
pressure at which the flow rate is measured (atmosphere pressure) usually 1 bar,
A is cross section areas of specimen, m2, L is thickness of specimen, m, V is the
flowrate, cm3 / sec. The porosity of the specimens was determined based on the
vacuum saturation method which has been recommended by the RILEM (1984).
The same set of specimens prepared for intrinsic permeability used for this test
as well. The porosity is calculated by the following expressions;

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 100 (2)

Where, msat is mass of saturated specimen, mdried is mass of oven dried

specimen, mwater is mass of specimen in water, all masses measured in kg.

Table 1: Specifications of coconut fibre

Item Unit Test value

Diameter mm 0.32
Length mm 20-30
Tensile strength Mpa 176
Elastic modulus GPa 22.4
Specific gravity - 1.13

Table 2: Performance of all specimens at 28 days (Ramli & Kwan, 2010)

Specimens Compressive strength Intrinsic permeability Porosity
(MPa) ( x 10-16 m2) (%)
CTRL 71.78 0.31 13.8
0.6CF 74.00 1.36 14.39
1.2CF 73.40 3.28 14.50
1.8CF 73.41 3.49 14.55
2.4CF 72.96 4.19 14.62

Table 3: Major ions of sea water

Ion Fresh sea water Used sea water Typical Sea
(mg/L) (mg/L) water
(mg/L)
Chloride 20265.8 17055.6 18980
Bromide 48.1 39.7 65
Phosphate 5.8 8.3 -
Sulphate 2250.2 1929.8 2950
Magnesium 309.5 5.8 1262
Calcium 283.5 711.5 400
Potassium 414.0 644.71 380

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH

Figure 1 demonstrates that the strengths of the 0.6CF, 1.2CF and 1.8CF
continue develop without showing any destructive effects. However, the 2.4CF

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exhibited lower strengths than others and started decreasing after 12 months of
exposure. This might be due to the specimen contained too much of fibres that
were high in water absorption. This would impair the microstructure of the matrix.
The 1.8CF has obtained the highest compressive strengths among all
specimens after 18 months of exposure in the cyclic wetting-drying condition (N-
series). Its strength was 1.7%, 5.8%, 13.2% and 22.9% higher than the 1.2CF,
0.6CF, CTRL and 2.4CF respectively. The strength development of the CTRL
was already constant after 3 months. The specimens have suffered more
intense of expansions and shrinkages due to the nature of the cyclic conditions.
This would impair the hardness and integrity of the matrix and prevent further
development of compressive strength.

85.00
83.00
Compressive Strength (MPa)

81.00
79.00
77.00 CTRL
75.00
0.6 CF
73.00
1.2 CF
71.00
1.8 CF
69.00
2.4 CF
67.00
65.00
0 5 10 15 20

Exposure Period (Months)

Figure 1: Compressive strength of the N-series specimens versus age

Hence, the effect of fibre in resisting volume change plays a very important
role in this kind of exposure condition. The specimen with high fibre content
(1.8CF) could perform better. However, this is only valid to certain extent.
Further increase of fibre content to 2.4% has resulted deleterious effects on the
2.4CF when the exposure period was being prolonged. The coconut fibre would
degrade faster when contact with the sea water. The fibres on the broken
specimens were easily ruptured by manual pull out. The alkaline attacks and
crystallization of salt at the fibre make the fibres brittle and loosen the strength.
The salt was observed in the SEM image as illustrated in figure 9 and 10. This is
in agreement with Ramakrishna and Sundararajan (2005). Therefore, instead of

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providing pros effects by resisting volume change, the effect of degradation of
fibres in the 2.4CF resulted in strength reduction. This statement is applied to
the specimens in both N- and W-series. In addition, John, Cincotto, Sjöström,
Agopyan, and Oliveira (2005) also explained that the speed of degradation was
accelerated in cyclic exposure condition because the water movement
transporting the hydroxyl ions, which in turn dissolve and rinse out the
decomposed lignin.

84.00
82.00
Compressive Strength (MPa)

80.00
78.00
76.00
74.00 CTRL
72.00 0.6 CF
70.00
1.2 CF
68.00
66.00 1.8 CF
64.00 2.4 CF
62.00
60.00
0 5 10 15 20

Exposure Period (Months)

Figure 2: Compressive strength of W-series specimens versus age

With reference to the figure 2, the 0.6CF and 1.2CF in W-series have
achieved comparable strength, differ by only 1.3% or 0.99 MPa. Their strengths
were higher than the CTRL during the entire testing period. The 2.4CF showed
the worse scenario, where its strength dropped rapidly and much earlier (after 3
months) compared to others. Even for the CTRL, the strength also started
dropping after 3 months of exposure, except for the fact that it had dropped
mildly compared to the 1.8CF and 2.4CF.
The specimens in the W-series received much intense seawater effects than
the ones in the N-series. The seawater may be considered as a kind of external
source of water supply for the continuation of cement hydration. This would be
responsible for the increasing part of the strength profiles, i.e. the first 3 months
for the CTRL, 1.8CF and 2.4CF as well as the first 12 months for the 0.6CF and
1.2CF. However, when the curves started dropping, it signified that the
detrimental effects of the seawater have become dominant. The seawater

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 attacks comprise of sulphate attacks from the source of sodium sulphate and
magnesium sulphate, as well as intensify the degradation process of the coconut
fibre. The latter is very pronouncing in high fibre content specimens (1.8CF and
2.4CF). For the case of sodium sulphate attack, sodium sulphate would react
with calcium hydroxide and calcium aluminate hydrate (4CaO·Al2O3·13H2O). The
end products of such chemical reactions would be gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O) and
ettringite (3CaO·Al2O3·3CaSO4·32H2O). (Bhatty & Taylor, 2006) Both gypsum
and ettringite would exert high internal pressure in the hardened concrete and
lead to the initiation of cracks. (Taylor, 1997) Meanwhile, for the case of
magnesium sulphate attack, the reactions would also result the formation of
gypsum and ettringite. Not limited to these, an addition process of decalsification
or disintegration of calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) would also take place
simultaneously and lead to complete destruction of the C-S-H. The destruction
of the binder phase resulted in substantial strength lost. In fact, past literature
has concluded that using silica fume as partial cement replacement would
aggravate the strength lost when exposed to magnesium based sulphate attack.
(Aye & Oguchi, 2011; Ganjian & Pouya, 2005; Lee, Moon, & Swamy, 2005) This
is due to the magnesium being keener to react directly with the C-S-H phase to
form magnesium silicate hydrate (M-S-H). This is likely to occur in the
environment where it lacks portlandite caused by the use of silica fume. The
reactions could be detected by the reduction in concentration of magnesium ion
and sulphate ion in the used seawater as shown in table 3 and also by the XRD
study.
One general statement could be drawn from figure 1 and figure 2 is that the
concept of FRC is applicable to address the deleterious effects cause by the
aggressive environment as in N- and W-series. However, intense seawater
attacks (figure 2) allow us to predict that durability of natural fibre is still
problematic. Thus, it is recommended to treat the fibre prior to the application or
replacing natural fibre with non-corrosive fibres like polypropylene fibre, Barchip
fibre or any other engineered fibre.

3.2 PERMEABILITY
There is a positive relationship between intrinsic permeability and the fibre
content at both exposure conditions. The gap was not only existed in the
aggregate/paste interfacial transition zones (ITZ) but also found at the
fibre/matrix ITZ. (Savastano Jr. & Agopyan, 1999) The SEM images in figure 9
and figure 10 have verified this argument. This finding is in agreement with

301
Savastano and Agopyan (1999) and they claimed that it was due to the high
shrinkage of the fibre. However, to the authors, they have thought of another
mechanism that was responsible for it. The presence of the gap was closely
related to the high absorption properties of the coconut fibre. During the mixing,
the vicinity of the fibre was surrounded by a water film. The absorption
properties and the osmosis pressure would retain this film and also force the
fibre to swell. As the hydration progressed, the cement started building up the
permanent shell structure. At the same time, the evaporation and the hydration
of cement consumed the water film and eventually formed a gap at the
fibre/matrix ITZ. The gap was further enlarged when the fibre returned to its
original form from swelling, because of its drying shrinkage.
In addition, the natural fibre was constructed from the porous cellular
structure. (Persson, 2000) The nitrogen gas used in the permeability test has the
chances to pass through the fibre itself. Thus, the probability of the pore network
to be interconnected was increased and therefore the permeability also
increased. In both exposure conditions, the permeability of specimens was
reducing over the age. This reduction was associated with the salt crystallization.
The blockage by the salt crystals would either discontinue the pore networks or
increase the turtuosity of the path ways of the permeability gas. These were
resulted in higher resistance for air penetration. (Ganjian & Pouya, 2009) Figure
10 shows that salt crystals were found in the surrounding of the fibre.
In figure 3, it could be observed that there is a sudden rise of the
permeability for CTRL and 2.4CF at 18 months of exposure. Macro cracks or the
crack path ways might probably be just connected after 12 months by the
occurrences of expansions and shrinkages on the specimens. Hence, the
permeability had suddenly increased. Well, dosage of coconut fibre ranging from
0.6% – 1.8% shows great control over it.

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 12.00

Intrinsic permeability, K ( x 10 -16 m2)

10.00

8.00
CTRL
6.00
0.6CF
1.2CF
4.00
1.8CF
2.00 2.4CF

0.00
0 5 10 15 20

Exposure Period (Months

Figure 3: Intrinsic permeability of N-series specimens versus age

12.00
Intrinsic permeability, K ( x 10 -16 m2)

10.00

8.00
CTRL
6.00
0.6CF
1.2CF
4.00
1.8CF
2.00 2.4CF

0.00
0 5 10 15 20

Exposure Period (Months

Figure 4: Intrinsic permeability of W-series specimens versus age

3.3 POROSITY
Figure 5 and 6 present the changes in porosity in C-FRC specimens with
respect to exposure period at both environments. The general trend suggested
that the porosity of all specimens were reduced with the time, irrespective of
their exposure conditions. This is matched with the continuation of hydration
process where the micro pores were filled up by the hydration products. (Neville,
1995) Since more water is readily available in W-series environment and the salt
crystallization was more intense, therefore the reduction in porosity is greater.
The latter was more pronouncing in reducing porosity of the specimens. Besides

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that, all of the C-FRC specimens have recorded higher porosity than the CTRL,
and these values were generally increasing with the fibre content. This is closely
related to the risk of entrapping air voids by incorporation of fibres. For the CTRL
in W-series, the porosity curve started with a steep slope at the first 3 months of
exposure, but the slope began to merge with other C-FRC slopes after that. At
18 months, the porosity of the CTRL was very close to the 0.6CF, 1.2CF and
1.8CF, varies not more than 2.5%.

15.00

14.00
Porosity (%)

13.00 CTRL
0.6 CF
12.00
1.2 CF

11.00 1.8 CF
2.4 CF
10.00
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Exposure Period (Months)

Figure 5: Porosity of C-FRC specimens (N-series) versus exposure period.

15.00

14.00
Porosity (%)

13.00 CTRL
0.6 CF
12.00
1.2 CF

11.00 1.8 CF
2.4 CF
10.00
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Exposure Period (Months)

Figure 6: Porosity of C-FRC specimens (W-series) versus exposure period.

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3.5 X-RAY DIFFRACTIONS
The objective of the mineralogical study is to confirm the reactions that have
occurred between the magnesium sulphate and sodium sulphate in the seawater
with the hydrated cement paste. The automated X-ray Diffractometer D5000, a
product of Siemens used in this test was able to provide the intensity of the peak
of each mineral, in terms of the percentage by referring to the y-axis.
From the comparisons of the y-axis of figure 7 and figure 8 (in counts), it is
very obvious that the peaks at outer layers of all specimens are much intense
then the one at the inner layer of the 2.4CF in W-series, although the 2.4CF is
the most permeable specimen. This suggests that the effect of the seawater is
relatively weak at the inner part of the concrete. In both figures show portlandite
was not present in the specimen. This could be due to the pozzolonic reaction of
silica fume which has transformed the portlandite into secondary calcium silicate
hydrate. In addition, the sulphate content in the seawater also reacted with
portlandite and transformed into gypsum.
New compound which is sepiolite (2MgO · 3SiO2 · 2H2O) was traced in the
2.4CF samples. Sepiolite occurs as a secondary mineral associated with the
serpentine. Meanwhile serpentine is the initial product of reactions in the
magnesium silica hydrate (MgO-SiO2-H2O or M-S-H) system under a range of
other conditions. This has verified the arguments on the conversion of the C-S-H
into M-S-H phase (Gollop & Taylor, 1992) However, the M-S-H is a poor
crystalline structure and it is hard to trace under the XRD analysis. (Skalny &
Machand, 2002)

305
Figure 7: XRD patterns of outer of the 2.4CF after 18 months of immersion in sea water. S
represents sepiolite; G, gypsum; Q, quartz; E, ettringite; C, calcite; CSH, calcium
silicate hydrate; F, feldspar; O, Okenite.

Figure 8: XRD patterns of inner of the 2.4CF after 18 months of immersion in sea water. S
represents sepiolite; G, gypsum; Q, quartz; E, ettringite; C, calcite; CSH, calcium
silicate hydrate; F, feldspar; O, Okenite.

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3.6 SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY EXAMINATIONS
The SEM images of the 2.4CF in W-series were illustrated in figure 9 and 10.
Both showed that a gap is existed at the interfacial zone between fibre and
matrix. In addition, the microstructures at the surrounding of the fibres were
porous and quite a large number of cracks were existed. These were suggested
that the fibres might partially impair the microstructure. The images also
evidenced the presence of salt crystals at the matrix. It could be observed that
the amount of salt crystals of the 2.4CF from W-series was apparently higher.

Figure 9: SEM image (250x magnifications) of the 2.4CF in N-series at 18 months.

Figure 10: SEM image (500x magnifications) of the 2.4CF in W-series at 18 months.

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4.0 CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions could be drawn from the extensive laboratory works:
1. The incorporation of coconut fibre in HSC showed a maximum of 13% of
enhancement in compressive strengths after 18 months in N-series,
while higher dosage caused deterioration in W-series. Therefore, the
maximum dosage should be limited to 1.2%.

2. There was no sudden rise in permeability of all C-FRC in N-series

(except 2.4CF). The permeability and porosity of the specimens was
decreased with the exposure periods, and increased with the increasing
fibre content.

3. The test results have confirmed that the concept of FRC is functioning
well in countering the environmental effects. However, the natural fibre is
recommended to undergo some treatment prior to the applications and
the testing period should be extended so that the long term seawater
effects on the FRC could be well understood.

5.0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to the Universiti Sains
Malaysia for the financial supports and all parties that have contributed in this
research.

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