Palm fiber as a natural reinforcement for improving the properties of traditional adobe bricks

This study investigates the short- and long-term characteristics of adobe bricks containing palm fibers of different soil weight ratios (0.25 to 1%). Towards this, the compressive strength, tensile strength, and ductility performance of specimens are evaluated while the microstructural characteristics of both the fibers and adobe specimens are investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The findings reveal the superior performance of fiber-reinforced adobe bricks compared to their unreinforced counterparts. In addition, the tensile strength of the adobe bricks rises with increasing the fiber content while the highest compressive strength is found in specimens with 0.25% fiber content.