A Study of the Tensile and Compressive Strengths of Jute Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Abstract

This research work was carried out to investigate the behaviour of concrete containing jute fiber of different weight fractions with different curing ages. Tests were carried out on both fresh concrete (slump and compaction factor test) and hardened concrete (compressive and split tensile tests) using different weight fractions of jute fiber at 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.00 and 1.5 %; with different curing ages of 3, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days strength. Using the 28 days curing age strength, the use of 0.5 % weight fraction of jute fiber increased slightly the compressive strength of concrete by 10.2 % while further increase in the fiber weight fraction reduced the compressive strength when compared with the control at 0 %. There was a progressive increase in tensile strength of concrete with an increase in percentage of jute fiber. An average optimum tensile strength value of 68.13 % was obtained with fiber content of 0.75 %.

Keywords

• jute fiber
• reinforced concrete
• compressive strength
• tensile strength and workability