Systematic Review on Reinforcing Mortars with Natural Fibers: Challenges of Environment-Friendly Option

In recent years, research has been carried out to examine natural fibers reinforced construction mortars (NFRM), which are now increasingly replacing synthetic fibers reinforced mortars, with a view to producing construction materials that not only limit environmental impacts but also improve their mechanical properties and thermal insulation characteristics. This article reports on research conducted using natural fibers for mortar reinforcement, through a systematic review of publications, based on a bibliometric analysis extracted from the Web of Sciences (WOS) and Scopus databases. In addition, analysis of the treatment of natural fibers used in the mortar reinforcement is also presented. In this context, the analysis of physical and thermal resistance parameters reveals a considerable increase in annual publications on this research topic while the literature using treated fibers represents nearly 12% of the NFRMs literature. Moreover, the results indicate the fiber treatment improves adhesion in the mortar matrix systems of composite materials obtained. It causes their capacity for water absorption to increase and their thermal conductivity to decrease, thus contributing to heat absorption and, above all, to their durability. It is desirable that this bibliometric analysis is susceptible to inform researchers in order to conduct further research to advance this field.