Author(s): Magdi H Almabrok, Ahmed Alriyifi and Ali Mohammed

Abstract: The growing concerns regarding the environmental impact generated by the use of inorganic materials in different field applications increased the interest in the use of agricultural fibres as an alternative for conventional reinforcements in cementitious composites. Date palm fibres are one of the most available agricultural fibres in North Africa and the Middle East. However, a significant amount of these fibres are wasted annually without any beneficial use. The present work consists of studying the effect of cement-based mortar reinforcing with date palm mesh fibres at fractions of 0%, 0.5%, 1%,1.5%,2% and 2.5% by weight of cement. The investigations were performed by exposing the sample to various environments: immersion in water saturated with lime and controlled hot-dry climate. The performance was studied in terms of workability, air content, wet density, compressive and flexural strength. The results indicated that the addition of DPMF had affected the fresh and hardened properties. Increased DPMF content in the cement mortar was found to reduce the flow and wet density, whereas there was an increase in the air content. Furthermore, it was observed that flexural and compressive strength proportionally decreased with the date palm mesh fibers addition, irrespective of the type of curing method used. However, it was found that specimens cured in LSW presented, on average, higher values of their mechanical properties than specimens cured in HC. The compressive strength decreased by ~17-20% compared to the control at 28 days’ age. However, since the compressive strength covered a wide range of values, various feasible end-use scenarios for date palm mesh fibers incorporated mortar exist.

Pages: 08-15 | Views: 378 | Downloads: 174

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