Comparative Analysis the Addition of Natural and Artificial Fibres in Concrete

Abstract

Concrete structurally has a fairly large compressive strength, but has a lack of tensile strength and is brittle. This weakness can be corrected by adding natural or artificial fibres to the concrete mix evenly with a random orientation. The purpose of this study was to investigate about the effect of adding natural fibres and artificial fibres on compressive strength and tensile strength of concrete. Test specimens used are cylindrical concrete measuring 150 mm x 300 mm with natural fibres from bamboo Betung and artificial fibres from local Bendrat wire. The variation of the percentage value of the fibre fraction volume is 0%, 0.2%, 0.4%, and 0.6% and the test is carried out when the concrete is 28 days old. The results showed that the addition of natural fibres and artificial fibres to the concrete mix can increase the compressive strength and tensile strength of normal concrete at a fraction volume of 0.4%. Increased compressive strength of normal concrete is 24.31% for bamboo Betung fibre and 20.81% for Bendrat wire fibre. Whereas the increased in tensile strength of normal concrete for Betung bamboo fibre increased by 77.12% and for Bendrat wire fibre increased by 3.24%.