STUDY OF

CHARACTERISTICS OF
CONCRETE WITH
RECYCLED AGGREGATE
AND COCONUT COIR FIBER

ABSTRACT
One of the natural fibres that can be used is coconut coir fibre. As we know, in
Malaysia 90% planting of coconut tree and of course the coir of the coconut will
not be used or throw away. To avoid the useless of the coir fibre, it can reuse as a
natural fibre to reinforce the composites replacing conventional or synthetic
composites in high performance applications due to their advantages over
conventional reinforcements. The natural fibre that will be used is coconut coir as
filler and the natural latex resin as a matrix material. There are 4 percentages of
the coir fibre that will be used to fabricate the composites which 40% wet, 50%
wet, 60% wet and 70% wet of coir fibre. Experimental Modal Analysis (EMA) will
be used to determine the dynamic characteristic of the composite (i.e. natural
frequency, damping ratio and mode shape). For all the cases, the plate only
experiences the global vibration where the whole structure is vibrating. The first
five mode shapes of each percentage of coir fibre were observed which can be
identified from 39.8 Hz until 985 Hz. From the result, the natural frequencies of
40% wet fibre are observed where can be identified from frequency 315 Hz until
985 Hz. The natural latex with the 40% volume of coir fibres shows a slightly
higher frequency compared to 70% volume of coir fibres only for the second until
five mode frequency. Somehow for the higher mode, it founds that the natural latex
with 70% fibres volume prove to have a higher value. The results were found that
the dynamic characteristics are greatly dependent on the volume percentage of
fibres. From the result, it can be concludes that the sample with 40% coir fibre
gives the highest value of natural frequency which is 315 Hz to 985 Hz compared
the others composition. The increase of coir fibres will make the composite tend to
have low stiffness and ductility.

Fiber-reinforced polymer composites have played a dominant role for a long time
in a variety of applications for their high specific strength and modulus. The fiber
which serves as a reinforcement in reinforced plastics may be synthetic or natural.
Past studies show that only synthetic fibers such as glass, carbon etc., have been
used in fiber-reinforced plastics. Although glass and other synthetic fiberreinforced plastics possess high specific strength, their fields of application are
very limited because of their inherent higher cost of production. In this connection,
an investigation has been carried out to make use of coir, a natural fiber
abundantly available in India. Natural fibers are not only strong and lightweight
but also relatively very cheap. The present work describes the development and
characterization of a new set of natural fiber based polymer composites consisting
of coconut coir as reinforcement and epoxy resin. The newly developed composites
are characterized with respect to their mechanical characteristics. Experiments
are carried out to study the effect of fiber length on mechanical behavior of these
epoxy based polymer composites. In the present work, coir composites are
developed and their mechanical properties are evaluated. Scanning electron
micrographs obtained from fractured surfaces were used for a qualitative
evaluation of the interfacial properties of coir/epoxy. These results indicate that
coir can be used as a potential reinforcing material for many structural and nonstructural applications. This work can be further extended to study other aspects of
such composites like effect of fiber content, fiber orientation, loading pattern, fiber
treatment on mechanical behavior of coconut coir based polymer composites.

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Natural fibres from cultivated plants such as cotton,
flax and sisal have been used in a large variety of products
from clothes to house roofing. Today these fibres are
appraised as environmentally correct material owing to their
biodegradability and renewable characteristics. Besides
those plants that are cultivated with the main purpose of
using the fibre, in other plants the fibre has secondary or no
commercial interest and is usually regarded as a waste.
The fibres from the coconut fruit crust that are nowadays disposed as an
unwanted waste, might be seen as a recyclable potential alternative to be
used in polymeric matrix composite materials, Monteiroetal.(2005).The
coconut palm tree (Cocos nucifera) is a multivalent fibre producer. Its fibre
canbeextractedfromanypartof the tree, including the long leaf sheath, the
midribs of the leaves,the bark of the stalk and the fruit crust.
Natural fibres such as cotton, flax and sisal have been used since historical
times in a large variety of products, ranging from clothes to house roofing.
Today, these fibres are appraised as environmentally correct materials owing
to their biodegradability and renewable characteristics. Moreover
,lignocellulosic fibres are neutral with respect to the emission of CO2. This
is an extremely important aspect and puts lignocellulosic fibres as materials
in context with the Kyotopro to col.Coconut fruit fibres, also known as coir
fibres, are extracted from both the exocarp and the endocarp of the fruit.
These coir fibres are currently been used in the form of mats in applications
such as substractes for ornamental plants, soil support and seat cushion for
automobiles. Coir fibres would bed ecomposed in 20 to 30 years in the
nature, it can be regarded as an environmentally friendly material. Lignin,
pectin and other impurities within the coir fibre are considered harmful for
its adhesion with the matrix during the composite fabrication (Gu, 2009).

Growing attention is nowadays being paid to coconut fibre. Fibres

extracted from the husk of the nut,known as coir fibre , are now
being commercially used, blended with natural rubber latex in the
production of seat cushion parts in automobiles, Monteiro et al.
(2008). These fibres are extracted from the externallayerofthe
exocarp and from the endocarp of the fruit.Thecoconut
palmcan,infact,beregarded as anintegral fibre producer because
fibres can be extracted from many parts of the palm, such as from
the leaf sheath, the bark ofthe petiole or from the midribs of leaves.
In free vibration, structures vibrate at inherent modal
frequencies and modesshapes,iftheirconditiondoes not change
with time. Based on this well-known observation, modal
frequencie and mode shapes change with altered structure
condition. Theoretically, this concept can be used for
bridgediagnosis.This involve xperimentally obtaining modal
parameters, including frequencies and mode shapes for before and
after altered structure conditions and comparing these parameters
for practical diagnosis.