Performance of Palm Frond Fibre Reinforced Sandcrete Blocks

Abstract

Many studies have been conducted on the use of natural materials as main reinforcement in sandcrete blocks. This study was to investigate the performance of sandcrete blocks reinforced with palm frond fibres (PFF). A normal mix of 1:8 with water cement ratio of 0.55% was used. Sixty sandcrete blocks of size 450 mm x 225 mm x 150 mm of varying fibre content of 0% (control), 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% by weight were moulded; twelve sandcrete blocks were produced for each fibre content. The sandcrete blocks produced were cured under laboratory conditions and subjected to compressive strength test at 7, 14, 21 and 28 days of curing. The compressive strength test result obtained from conventional sandcrete blocks at 28 days of curing was 5.23 N/mm2 while the corresponding values of compressive strength at 28 days of curing age for 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% PFF-reinforced sandcrete blocks were 3.71 N/mm2, 3.89 N/mm2, 3.89 N/mm2, and 4.02 N/mm2 respectively. However, the compressive strength increases as the percentage of fibre increases. This shows that PFF of 2.0% and above should be used to produce fibre-reinforced sandcrete blocks that will give competitive strength values. Also, water absorption of the sandcrete block increases as the fibre content increases, while the maximum absorption of 20.1% (which is above the allowable limit) was obtained at curing ages of 21 and 28 days and the maximum density result was 1.26 kg/m3. The results obtained from the research work proved that local materials like PFF can be efficiently utilised in enhancing the strength of sandcrete blocks.