COCONUT COIR FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE.

ABSTRACT

Concrete is a heart of construction industry. Investigations to

overcome the brittle response and limiting post-yield energy
absorption of concrete led to the development of fiber
reinforced
concrete using discrete fibers within the concrete mass. A
wide variety of fibers have been proposed by the researchers,
such as steel, glass, polypropylene, carbon, polyester, acrylic
,aramid and natural fibers.

Out of these, coconut coir is found to be impressive being

natural and available everywhere. Coir provides a natural,
non-toxic replacement for asbestos in the production of
cement fiberboard. The Coir-reinforced concrete is strong,
flexible and may be less expensive to produce than other
reinforcement methods such as wire mesh or rebar, according
to a paper by Ben Davis of Georgia Tech University. Some
studies related to durability aspects of natural fiber such as
coconut coir and sisal are carried out by researchers.

Over half of the population around the world is living in slums

and villages. The earthquake damages in rural areas get
multiplied mainly due to the widely adopted non– engineered
 constructions. On the other hand, in many smaller towns and
villages in southern part of India, materials such as nylon,
plastic, tyre, coir, sugarcane bagasse and rice husk are
available as a waste. So, here an attempt has been made to
investigate the possibility of using these locally available rural
waste fibrous materials as concrete composites.
A concrete mix of grade M20 has been designed to achieve the
minimum grade of M20 as specified in IS 456-2000.