The effect of different treatments on abaca fibers used in cementitious composites

The use of natural fibers including abaca has increased because of its advantages such as lightweight, low price, life-cycle superiority, and substitute for synthetic fibers. This paper gives an insight into the effect of three different treatments on abaca fibers: hornification, NaOH 3% concentration solution, and a coating of silica fume with natural latex into cementitious composites; fibers have been characterized before and after through SEM, XRD, FT-IR, TGA, and tensile tests to analyze structural and chemical changes. Cementitious composites through setting time and flexural strength (7, 14, 28 days) were analyzed for determining the optimum treatment and, afterward, the best dosage and length. It was found that HS treatment with 30 mm and 0.2% dosage showed 8.2 MPa in terms of flexural strength.