EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON FLEXURAL STRENGTH OF

RC BEAM USING SISAL FIBER AND COMPARING WITH

CONVENTIONAL CONCRETE
Venkateswaran.S1, Dr. ARR.Kalaiarasi. 2
1
P.G. Student, Department of Civil Engineering, St.Peter’s College of Engineering and Technology, Chennai
2
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, St.Peter’s Institute of Higher Education and Research,
Chennai

ABSTRACT
Worldwide a great research is currently being conducted on the use of fibers in concrete.
Concrete is an artificial stone-like material used for various structural purposes. It is made by mixing
a binding material (as cement) and various aggregates (inert materials), such as sand, stone chips,
brick chips, brick chips, pebbles, gravel, shale, etc with water and allowing the mixture to harden by
hydration. Number of research has been done to find an alternate material in concrete. Concrete has
enough flexibility to use the range of materials in its production. In this investigation an effort was
made on the natural sisal fiber was used in concrete with replacing cement composite partially. Here
the sisal fiber is chemically treated for using in concrete. Thereby the mechanical properties such as
compressive strength of concrete is determined by using cube specimens, split tensile strength of
concrete is determined by using cylinder specimens and flexural strength of RC BEAM with
0.5%,1%,1.5% and with the aspect ratio of 1:20 is compared with conventional RC BEAM. The cross
section of the RC BEAM is 200mm X 130mm and length 1200mm is used. A concrete mix of grade 25
was designed as per BIS method for our experimental work. Water cement ratio 0.47 has to be adopted
and performance of concrete with treated natural sisal fiber is investigated.

Keywords: sisal fiber, compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength

INTRODUCTION

Fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) is concrete containing fibrous material which increases
its structural integrity. It contains short discrete fibers that are uniformly distributed and
randomly oriented. Fibers include steel fibers, glass fibers, synthetic fibers and natural fibers.
Within these different fibers that character of fiber reinforced concrete changes with varying
concretes, fiber materials, geometries, distribution, orientation and densities. In the past,
attempts have been made to import improvement in tensile properties of concrete members by
way of using confine reinforced steel bars and also by applying restraining techniques. In plain
concrete and similar brittle materials, structural cracks develop even before loading,
particularly due to drying shrinkage or other causes of volume change. When loaded, the micro
cracks propagate and open up, and owing to the effect of steer’s concentration, additional
cracks form in places of minor defects the structural cracks precede slowly or by tiny jumps
because they are retard by various obstacles, changes of the direction in by passing the more
resistant grains in the matrix. The development of such micro cracks is the main cause of the
inelastic deformation in the concreteThis type of concrete is known as fiber reinforced
concrete. Sisal Fiber reinforced concrete can be defined as composite material consisting of
mixtures of cement, mortar or concrete, uniformly dispersed suitable fibers. It also been used
for improving the durability of composites.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The sisal is being used in concrete. Thereby, the mechanical properties such as
compressive strength, split-tensile strength, and modulus of rupture of M40 grade concrete and
by varying the dosage of fiber content from 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4%, and 0.5%, by volume of
cement with optimum length of 35mm. (Athiappan. K, Vijaychandrakanth. S 2014)
The number of natural fibers such as jute, sisal, coir etc are being considered as suitable
candidates for fibre reinforcement materials in composites following chemical modification.
The advantages of natural fibres is their continuous supply, easy and safe handling and
biodegradable nature. (P.Sathish, V.Murugesh 2016)
The investigation on Quarry dust and sisal fiber to be used in concrete the density was
comparatively low when compared with conventional concrete. The present research work is
to use quarry dust 20% constantly as replacement of fine aggregate and to use addition of sisal
fiber in the range of 0.25%, 0.50% and 0.75% for the total volume of concrete. (L.Nagarajan,
S.Pavithra 2016)
The investigation on cement in concrete is replaced accordingly with the percentage of
10 %, 20% and 30% by weight of slag and 1% of sisal fiber is added by weight of cement.
Concrete cubes are tested at the age of 7, 14, and 28 days of curing. The strength performance
of slag blended fiber reinforced concrete is compared with the performance of conventional
concrete. (P.Sasikumar, J.Thivya. 2017)

MATERIALS USED
Cement
OPC 53 grade confirming to IS 12269-1987 is used for this experiment. The properties
of this test have been tested and listed below
Table 1 Properties of Cement
Specific gravity of cement 3.15
Initial setting time 28 minutes

Fine aggregate
River sand is used satisfying IS 383 provisions and for concrete preparing. The
properties of this test have been tested and listed below
Table 2 Properties of Fine Aggregate
Specific gravity of fine aggregate 2.6

Coarse aggregate
Angular aggregate of 20mm nominal size is been used as per IS 383 provision. The
properties of this test have been tested and listed below
Table 3 Properties of Coarse Aggregate
Specific gravity of coarse aggregate 2.62
Water absorption 0.5%

Sisal Fiber
Sisal Fiber is one of the most widely used natural fiber and is very easily cultivated. It
is obtained from sisal plant. The plant, known formally as Agave sisalana.
Table 4 Physical Properties of Sisal Fiber
Tensile Strength (Mpa) 385 to 728
Elongation of Break (%) 2.75
Diameter (mm) 0.8 to 1.2mm
Density (g/cm3) 1.58
Young’s Modulus (Gpa) 9—22
Moisture 6.55
Water
Portable water with pH value of 7.0 + 1 and confirming to the requirement of IS 456-
2000 was used for preparing and curing the concrete.
Admixture
Conplast WL is a dark brown liquid based on lignosulphonates which mixes readily
with water and therefore disperses evenly
MIX PROPORTION
Mix design for concrete was made using the properties of constituents of concrete.
Grade of concrete was taken as M25 and the mix design was done as per IS: 10262-1982 and
IS: 456-2000.
Table 5 Mix Proportion

Water Cement Fine aggregate Coarse aggregate

kg/m3 kg/m3 kg/m3 kg/m3
191.6 407.66 780.76 993.2
0.47 1 1.91 2.43

REINFORCEMENT DETAILS
Cross section and longitudinal details of RCC beams are listed in below fig

Figure 1 Reinforcement Details

CASTING AND CURING OF SPECIMENS
Based upon the design mix the required ingredients are taken. The concrete mix is done
by manually, then the fresh concrete is filled in moulds. The tamping rod is used for compacting
the fresh concrete in moulds. Then concrete filled moulds are kept separately. The specimens
casted are demouled after 24 hours, and then specimens were cured.

Figure 2 Casting
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Slump value

The slump value of conventional concrete is high than the sisal fiber replaced concrete.
The slump value decreased with increase in percentage of sisal fiber.
 Table 6 Slump Values
Addition of fiber % Value
0% 60 mm
0.5% 45 mm
1% 42 mm
1.5% 35 mm

Compressive strength
The most common of all tests on hardened concrete is the compression test to find the
compressive strength of concrete. Three specimens shall be made for testing at 7, 14, 28 days
respectively.
Table 7 Average Compressive Strength
Days Percentage replaced Compressive strength 28 days (N/mm2)
7 days 14 days 28 days
0% 17 24 27.5
0.5% 19.5 26.4 31.1
28 1% 21.6 28.3 33.3
1.5% 20.8 27.2 32

Split tensile strength

In this investigation the test is carried out on cylinder by splitting along its middle plane
parallel to edges by applying the compressive load to opposite edges. Three specimens shall be
made for testing at 7, 14 and 28 days respectively.
Table 8 Average Split Tensile Strength
Days Percentage replaced Split tensile strength (N/mm2)
7 days 14 days 28 days
0% 1.7 2 2.5
0.5% 2.2 2.6 3.1
28 1% 2.8 3.2 3.9
1.5% 3.5 3.8 4.5

Flexural Strength
The experimental program contained 12 beams. All the beams were utilized to study the effect
of flexural strengthening. RCC beams were casted with 0.5%,1%,1.5% and conventional
concrete are tested. M25 grade concrete RCC Beam maximum ultimate load is found on 1%
sisal fiber replaced RCC Beam the value is115.

Figure 3 Test Setup

 Table 9 Beam Load Results
Sl. Parameter Conventional 0.5% Sisal 1% Sisal 1.5% Sisal
No Concrete Fiber Fiber Fiber
Replaced Replaced Replaced
Concrete Concrete Concrete

1 Initial crack load (kn) 40 45 51 48

2 Ultimate load (kn) 79 93 115 103

3 Ultimate deflection 2.2 2.75 2.9 2.3

(Mid Span) mm

4 Ultimate deflection 1.9 2 2.3 1.9

(Flexure) mm

100 100

80 80

60 60

40 40

20 20

0 0
0 1 2 3 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
DEFLECTION (mm) DEFLECTION (mm)
Figure 4 Load Deflection Curve for
Conventional RC Beam at Mid Span Figure 5 Load Deflection Curve for
Conventional RC Beam at Flexure

100 100
80 80
60 60
40
40
20
20
0
0
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3
DEFLECTION (mm) DEFLECTION (mm)
Figure 6 Load Deflection Curve for
Figure 7 Load Deflection Curve for
0.5% Sisal Fiber Replaced RC Beam at
0.5% Sisal Fiber Replaced RC Beam at
Mid Span
Flexure
 140 120
120 100
100 80
80
60
60
40
40
20
20
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3
DEFLECTION (mm) DEFLECTION (mm)

Figure 8 Load Deflection Curve for 1% Figure 9 Load Deflection Curve for 1%
Sisal Fiber Replaced RC Beam at Sisal Fiber Replaced RC Beam at
Mid Span Flexure

140 120

120 100
100 80
80
60
60
40
40
20 20

0 0
0 1 2 3 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
DEFLECTION (mm) DEFLECTION (mm)

Figure 10 Load Deflection Curve for Figure 11 Load Deflection Curve for
1.5% Sisal Fiber Replaced RC Beam at 1.5% Sisal Fiber Replaced RC Beam at
Mid Span Flexure

CONCLUSION
From this experimental investigation, the following conclusion were arrived,
 Using the natural sisal fiber increase the strength of concrete.
 The optimum percentage of sisal fiber for maximum strength was 1% for compressive
strength and 1.5% for split tensile strength.
 Workability decreases with increase in percentage of sisal fiber replaced with 0.5%,
1%, 1.5% of cement.
 The flexural strength of the replaced sisal fiber replaced beam the strength attained is
higher than normal strength concrete.

 The initial crack load value is increased it indicates strength of concrete is improved
than conventional concrete.
 The ultimate flexure strength of beam was attained at 1% replacement of sisal fiber
concrete.
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