Jr.

of Industrial Pollution Control 33(S3)(2017) pp 1381-1386

www.icontrolpollution.com
Research Article

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON STRENGTH PARAMETERS OF STEEL OR

PLASTIC FIBERS USING COCONUT SHELL CEMENT CONCRETE
PRAKASH CHANDAR S1, GUNASEKARAN K2, GAURISHADITYA RAVICHANDRAN3 AND
RAMSUBRAMANI R1*

Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, SRM University, Kattankulathur, India

1

2Department of Civil Engineering, SRM University, Kattankulathur, India

2
Post Graduate Student, Department of Civil Engineering, SRM University, Kattankulathur, India

(Received 11 July, 2017; accepted 24 October, 2017)

Key words: Coconut shell, Steel fiber, Plastic fiber, Low cost housing, SSD, XRD

ABSTRACT

The cost of building construction with conventional materials is a major concern these days, So
there is a demand of materials those could replace conventional building materials. So the aim
of the project is to find such type of products which could help to build a low cost housing. Thus
it was found Coconut shell and certain fibers produce a huge amount of wastage in the society.
It was known that by adding certain fibers, strength parameters of concrete tends to increase.
Also Steel and Plastic fibers possess a great resistance towards cracks. So in this paper, various
proportions of fibers at 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2% are introduced in M25 grade of concrete and the
results of Compressive, Tensile and Flexural strength were studied and observed that there is
certain improvement in terms of strength in Coconut shell Concrete. It was known during testing
and observation that 1% of fiber is found to be more effective than other proportion of fibers that
were introduced in Coconut shell Concrete and Slump Cone results suggested that workability of
concrete decreases with increase in amount of fiber contents.

INTRODUCTION amount of wastage in agricultural field. Also studies

Concrete is a material that is made up of aggregates
such as fine aggregate and coarse aggregate, cement,
water and admixtures. It is the most commonly used
construction material because of its vitality. Around
8 tones of concrete is manufactured every year in
terms of its need. It is known that aggregates are
the major part in production of concrete. With the
demand of natural aggregates increasing year by
year, it is predicted that by 2020 there will be demand
of 2000 million metric tones of aggregate. So this
demand raises a huge question on our eco system
and its preservation. Thereby, any alternate material
for coarse aggregate is in need and to preserve our
environment it is important to look after the waste
materials that are produced and how it could be used
as a replacement of coarse aggregate. In such way
it was observed that coconut shell possesses a huge
suggest that coconut shell can be used a replacement
of coarse aggregate. Concrete is known to be strong
in compression and comparatively weaker in
tension, So to enhance the tensile strength of concrete
certain fibers could be added to the concrete. So with
addition of fibers in concrete, cracks can be prevented
in concrete which may tend to occur early. Fibers
also could improve the mechanical properties of the
concrete (Ahmed and Lovell, 1994).
Steel fibers
Steel fibers are introduced into the concrete to
increase the tensile property and to avoid the cracks
that get formed in the concrete. It increases the
toughness of concrete and further increases the
mechanical properties of the concrete. It is been very
well used in the modern construction industry to

*Corresponding authors email: ramprabu862@gmail.com

1382 RAMSUBRAMANI ET AL.
resist certain characteristics of concrete. The type following project (Fig. 1 and 2).
of steel fiber used is the hooked type steel fiber
X-RAY DIFFRACTION ANALYSIS
(Olanipekun, et al., 2006).
X ray diffraction is one method to determine the
Plastic fibers
crystalline of a compound, its main purpose is to
The use of Plastic has increased rapidly in the world, determine the percent of crystalline of a sample and
So it creates a huge wastage of plastic. So considering to distinguish between crystalline and amorphous
the environment it is necessary to make use of the material (Fig. 3).
plastics wastage that could be used a fiber. So it was
found that after cutting of PVC plastic pipe, huge
TEST RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
amount of shredded plastic is wasted. Thus that Compression strength test
could be used as one of Plastic fiber (Gunasekaran,
Compression Strength test was carried out in
et al., 2011).
Universal Testing Machine (UTM), by placing
OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE the cube in machine and with load being applied
gradually. The size of the cube used is 100 × 100 ×
To examine properties of steel and plastic fibers
100 mm. Then the stress is computed by (load/area)
and to develop mix design in coconut shell cement
N/mm2 Table 1 and (Fig. 4).
concrete. To study the fresh and hardened fiber
reinforced concrete using coconut shell concrete. To Tensile strength test
study the behaviour of different structural elements
Tensile strength test was carried out using the
under static loading. The use of coconut shell as
cylinder specimen, to determine the split tensile
partial or total replacement of coarse aggregate
strength of the concrete. The cylinder casted for
will not only solve environmental problems but
testing is 100 mm in diameter and 200 mm in length
also will generate income from waste. To study the
and to compute the stress the formula used is (2P/
experimental behavior of steel fiber and plastic fiber
3.14 × D × L) N/mm2 (Table 2) and (Fig. 5).
in varying proportions of coconut shell concrete (IS
: 516-1959). Flexural beam test

MATERIALS USED The flexural beam test was carried out in Universal
Testing Machine (UTM), for carrying out the test the
There were various materials used for the project beam specimen of size 100 × 100 × 500 mm is used.
and they were as follow. To compute the stress, the formula of (PL/bd2) N/
Cement mm2 (Table 3 and Fig. 6).
The cement used for the following project is OPC
grade 53.
Fine aggregate
The fine aggregate used for the project is river sand
and the size of fine aggregate was maximum of 4.75
mm.
Coconut shell concrete
The Coconut shell was produced by crushing the
coconut in crusher machine of size 10 mm maximum
12.5 mm and saturated surface dryness was carried Fig. 1 Hooked steel fiber.
out with the coconut shell before it is used for casting.
Steel fiber
A hooked type steel fiber of diameter 0.5 mm and
4 cm length was introduced into the concrete to
improve the tensile characteristics of concrete.
Plastic fiber
Cutting of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) pipe produces
shredded waste, so it is used as Plastic Fiber in the Fig. 2 PVC plastic fiber.
 AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON STRENGTH PARAMETERS OF STEEL OR PLASTIC FIBERS
USING COCONUT SHELL CEMENT CONCRETE
1383

Fig. 3 X-ray diffracted image analysis of coconut shell and plastic fiber.

Compressive strength Compressive strength Compressive strength

Materials % of fiber
N/mm2 3rd day N/mm2 7th day N/mm2 28th day
CC 0% 19.7 22.52 33.4
CSC 0% 13.6 18.2 26.3
0.5% 14.3 19 26.3
1% 15 19.6 27.2
Steel fiber
1.5% 13.5 17.3 23.2
2% 10.3 17.4 21.2
0.5% 15.1 20 27
1% 18.6 22.6 28.2
Plastic fiber
1.5% 14 18 22.1
2% 13 15.7 21.6
Table 1. Compression strength test of control and coconut shell concrete along with varying proportions of steel fibers and
plastic fibers

Fig. 4 Graphical representation and comparison on compression strength of control and coconut shell concrete along with
varying proportions of steel fibers and plastic fibers.

Analysis on failure of RC column when load being applied. This deflection will be
To determine the failure analysis of Reinforced determined through the deflectometer placed in
Column, it is important to know the maximum both sides of the column when the load is applied
deflection the reinforced column undergoes (Fig. 7 -9) and Table 4.
1384 RAMSUBRAMANI ET AL.

Table 2. Tensile strength test of control and coconut shell concrete along with varying proportions of steel fibers and
plastic fibers
Compressive strength Compressive strength Compressive strength
Material % of fiber
N/mm2 3rd day N/mm2 7th day N/mm2 28th day
CC 0% 2.16 3.59 4
CSC 0% 1.08 2.10 2.50
0.5% 1.27 2.29 4.23
1% 1.84 2.80 4.92
Steel fiber
1.5% 1.65 2.58 4.47
2% 1.59 2.50 4.36
0.5% 1.30 2.36 4.30
1% 1.92 2.90 5.00
Plastic fiber
1.5% 1.66 2.64 2.51
2% 1.63 2.51 4.36

Fig. 5 Graphical representation and comparison on tensile strength of control and coconut shell concrete along with
varying proportions of steel fibers and plastic fibers.

Table 3. Flexural strength test of control and coconut shell concrete along with varying proportions of steel fibers and
plastic fibers

Compressive strength Compressive strength Compressive strength

Materials % of fiber
N/mm2 3rd day N/mm2 7th day N/mm2 28th day
CC 0% 2.5 4 7
CSC 0% 2 2.5 4
0.5% 3 4.5 7
1% 5 5.5 8
Steel fiber
1.5% 4.5 5 7
2% 4 4.5 6.5
0.5% 3.5 4.5 7.5
1% 5.5 6 9
Plastic fiber
1.5% 4.5 5.5 7.5
2% 4 5 6
 AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON STRENGTH PARAMETERS OF STEEL OR PLASTIC FIBERS
USING COCONUT SHELL CEMENT CONCRETE
1385

Fig. 6 Graphical representation and comparison on flexural strength of control and coconut shell concrete along with
varying proportions of steel fibers and plastic fibers

Fig. 7 Loading schematic of RC column.

Fig. 8 Failure of RC column.

1386 RAMSUBRAMANI ET AL.

Fig. 9 Load deflection curve for various proportion of concrete.

Table 4. Load vs. deflection values of reinforced columns

Serial no Code Breaking load (Tons) Maximum Deflection (mm)
1 CC 35 2.2
2 CSC 32 1.26
3 0.5% S.F in CSC 34 1.35
4 1 % S.F in CSC 35 1.63
5 1.5% S.F in CSC 35 2.27
6 2% S.F in CSC 35 2.03
7 0.5% P.F in CSC 35 2.2
8 1% P.F in CSC 35 2.05
9 1.5% P.F in CSC 35 2.30
10 2% P.F in CSC 35 2.45

CONCLUSIONS is high at 1% than other proportions of steel fiber

1. It was observed that coconut shell concrete has
achieved the strength 25 MPa for the grade M25.
2. It was observed that steel and plastic fiber in
coconut shell concrete of proportion 1% has
higher compressive strength compared to other
proportions of 0.5%, 1.5% and 2%.
3. It was seen that steel and plastic fiber in coconut
shell concrete of 1% has shown compressive
strength higher than coconut shell concrete.
and plastic fiber.
REFERENCES
Ahmed, I. and Lovell, C.W. (1994). Transport
Research Laboratory, A review of use of the waste
materials and by products in road construction.
Contractor Report 358.
Gunasekaran, K., Kumar, P.S. and Lakshmipathy,
M. (2011). Mechanical and bond properties of
Coconut shell Concrete. Construction and Building
Materials. 25(1) : 92-98.

4. It was also observed that plastic fiber in coconut
shell concrete has higher compressive strength
than steel fibres.
5. With presence of steel fiber in coconut shell
concrete, the tensile strength and flexural strength
IS:516-1959. Method of test for strength of concrete.
Olanipekun, E.A., Olusola, K.O. and Ata, O. (2006).
A comparative study of concrete properties
using coconut shell and palm kernel shell as
coarse aggregates. Building and Environment.
41(3) : 297-301.