THE EFFECT OF BANANA FIBER ON THE FLEXURE BEHAVIOR OF CONCRETE BEAMS

Abstract

One of the challenges of the current era is reaching a compatibility between the required resistance and lightweight for structural elements. The utilization of the lightweight materials may negatively affect the mechanical properties. Therefore, the fiber was used based on its optimal solutions to enhance the materials and contributes to improve the mechanical properties. Although the fibers Industrial such as carbon and glass is the most common, as it gives a high tensile resistance, the production of these fibers is energy-consuming, costly and causes negative effects on the environment. Therefore, researchers tend in recent years to search for other types of fibers that are environmentally friendly and low cost. Therefore, the trend has been towards plant fibers, as banana fibers, because it can be obtained easily, low-cost, environmentally friendly and give distinctive mechanical properties. The use of banana fibers in composites and concrete is a new technology that is economical, low-cost, environmental and recyclable. Having banana fibers with a high percentage of cellulose made it more suitable for the industrial structural purpose in building and construction materials. The general objectives of this study are to investigate the effect of banana fibers on the flexure behavior of RC beams. Flexural strength results from the tested beams showed an increase in flexural strength depending on the fiber ratio. The present thesis studied the behavior of reinforced concrete beams reinforced with banana fiber reinforced polymer bars (BFRP). This was achieved by conducting an experimental program and numerical study. In the first part of the thesis, a full description of the experimental program is given where forty simply supported beams were tested under monotonic static concentrated loading. All specimens had identical central span length of 1000 mm, concrete depth 250 mm, concrete width 200mm. The test specimens were varied according to: (1) banana fiber bars ratio, (2 )