Evaluation of ductility index enhancement level of banana fibre.

What is it about?

An experimental investigation was carried out to evaluate the ductility index of banana fibre reinforced lightweight self-compacting concrete (LWSCC) containing supplementary cementitious materials of rice husk ash and micro silica as ternary system. Coconut shell aggregate (CSA) was substituted at the rate of 50% as partial replacement of coarse aggregate by volume. Banana fibre was added at 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.25 and 1.5% by volume of concrete to develop the fibre reinforced LWSCC. The study program included to evaluate the effect of CSA and banana fibre on fresh properties, compressive strength and flexural strength of LWSCC. Reinforced concrete beams were casted with M30 grade concrete and tested under flexure using two point loading. The load–deflection curves were developed and examined. The ductility index was calculated to evaluate the ductility enhancement behaviour of banana fibre reinforced LWSCC. The test results indicated that 1.25% banana fibre added LWSCC beam had shown better performance than the other dosage level of fibres and results are compared with the LWSCC without fibre.

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Why is it important?

Concrete is considered as lightweight concrete when its density is less than 1850 kg/m3. The properties of lightweight concrete is differ from the normal weight concrete particularly the tensile strength and ultimate strain are lower than the normal concrete in addition to compressive strength. Lightweight aggregates are the most desirable material for designing large span structural elements due to the aggregate content provides the volume of concrete which accounts 66–78% of total volume. The lightweight aggregates with lower specific gravity are used either a portion or entire aggregate content instead of normal aggregates. The literature evidences had proved that the aggregate obtained from pumice [1], [2], [3], [4], foamed slag [5], [6], sintered fly-ash [7], [8] and expanded clay [9], [10] are some of the suitable lightweight aggregates which can be used for developing lightweight concrete. On the other hand, the agricultural by-products such as palm kernel shell (PKS) [11], [12] and coconut shell (CS) [13], [14] are investigated for the suitability as alternate lightweight aggregate in concrete.

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