Mechanical Characterization of Foamed Concrete Reinforced with Natural Fibre

In this work, an experimental investigation of the mechanical properties of foamed concrete with and without fibre reinforcement is presented. To reinforce the foamed concrete, natural fibres, i.e., henequen and coir fibres were used. Target dry density of 800 kg/m(3) was investigated. Plain foamed concrete without fibre reinforcement was also studied. Quasi-static uniaxial compressive tests were performed on foamed concrete samples. It is found that while the henequen fibre-reinforcement enhances slightly the mechanical behaviour of the foamed concrete, the coir fibre reinforcement results in a reduction of mechanical performance when compared with plain foam concrete. This observation is explained by transfer of load from the matrix to the fibres, which indicates that the fibre/matrix bonding plays an important role in the structural performance of reinforced foamed concrete. Differences of density in the foamed concrete samples can also explain the difference in mechanical performance. The results show that this light material has the potential to be used as a core for the design of sandwich panel for construction structural applications; however, the results in this study are limited and further research has to be carried out to fully understand this type of material.