COMPARATIVE STUDY ON COMPRESSIVE | STRENGTH OF FIBRE-REINFORCED CONCRETE MADE WITH INDUSTRIAL HYBRID FIBRE AND NATURAL WASTE FIBRE

Fibre-reinforced concrete (FRC) is a concrete consisting of normal concrete ingredients and fibre as additional material, such as natural fibre, industrial fibre, and synthetic fibre. The purpose of adding fibre in concrete is to enhance mechanical properties, concrete performance, structural integrity, and control cracking. The failure of normal concrete and the dumping of large and unmanageable waste such as solid waste from residential or industrial are worrying and cause various problems to the environment. The increase in the cost of raw materials, such as steel-reinforced bars has caused a large transition from reinforced concrete to fibre-reinforced concrete. From all these problems, FRC with waste hybrid steel fibre (WHSF) from the steel industry and sugarcane bagasse fibre (SBF) from the agriculture industry which is categorised as natural fibre is studied to obtain information and data on strength of different types of fibre. The main objective of the study is to determine the compressive strength of FRC with WHSF and SBF, and then compare them to obtain the best fibre for use in FRC with appropriate compressive strength. WHSF and SBF are collected and put through a certain process before being added to the FRC. Then, the FRC underwent a workability test of fresh FRC condition and a water absorption test and a compressive strength test of hardened FRC. The workability of FRC decreased when the WHSF or SBF is added. The compressive strength of FRC decreased with increasing WHSF except for 0.2% of WHSF and 0.5% of SBF. The percentage of compressive strength of FRC increased by approximately 6.58% for 0.2% of WHSF and 4.33% for 0.5% of SBF. From the comparative study of compressive strength, FRC with WHSF is more suitable to be utilised as an additional fibre when compared with FRC with SBF at 28 days but both have similar suitability at an early age, i. e., seven days. Finally, the compressive strength of FRC depends on the shape, volume and condition of fibre.