Strength properties of renewable bio-based lightweight foam concrete incorporating of polypropylene fibre

Abstract

This paper investigates the incorporating of renewable lightweight bio-based aggregate (RLWBBA) in lightweight foam concrete (LWFC). The aim of this research is to incorporate different volume fraction (Vf) of polypropylene (PP) fibre into LWFC to determine the optimum compressive strength and splitting tensile strength. Four different mix was designed containing different percentage of PP replacement (0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3%). From the results, the compressive strength of the oil palm shell lightweight foamed concrete with 0.3% of macro polypropylene fibre (OPSLWFC/0.3) had showed the highest compressive strength and splitting tensile strength at 28 days, which are recorded at 4.01 MPa and 0.62 MPa respectively. It also showed the lowest density among all the mix design which is 1152 kg/m3 under demoulded condition. The OPSLWFC/0.3 has increased about 23.38% of 28 days compressive strength and 37.78% of splitting tensile strength compared to the control mix, which contains 0% of fibre proportion. Hence, the findings of this research revealed that the development of environmentally friendly lightweight foamed concrete can be used as an alternative solution for traditional lightweight concrete.