Physical and mechanical properties of mortars containing date palm fibers

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study conducted to investigate the effects of incorporating Sefri Date Palm Leave Fibers (SDPLF) into the mortar. A total of seven mixtures were prepared and tested. SDPLF were collected from local farms. The fibers were then cleaned, dried, and cut to different sizes of 10 mm, 20 mm, and 50 mm, maintaining the same individual fiber width of approximately 5±2 mm. The content of SDPLF in mortars was kept to 1% and 3% by mass. The physical and mechanical properties of SDPLF fibers and SDPLF mortars were investigated. The compressive strength at 7, 14, and 28 days was determined. The water absorption rate test was carried out on mortars containing 1% SDPLF fibers. The results showed that mortars with SDPLF have lower workability, lower density, and lower compressive strength as compared to control mortars. However, they are still acceptable for use in construction works. Mortars containing 10 mm and 20 mm SDPLF fibers by mass showed significant improvement in terms of water absorption rate as compared to the control mortar.

A Review on the Utilization of Date Palm Fibers as Inclusion in Concrete and Mortar

“…The content and size of DPF fibers play a very important role in the concrete and mortar. Therefore, researchers have investigated such effects on the concrete and mortar by testing different contents of fibers starting from 1% to 60% by volume, and different lengths of fibers starting from 3 mm to 100 mm [1,19,26,34,37,38,41,43,44]. In fact, when the content of DPF increases, the water demand is also increased due to the high DPF absorption capacity [35].…”

“…Thus, to minimize the water absorption of DPF fibers in the mixture, the DPF fibers are submerged in water before adding them to the mixture [34,35,41]. According to [37], the sand was first mixed with DPF fibers and the cement to ensure the equal distribution of the fibers among the mixture before gradually adding the mixing water. The mixing process is usually carried out slowly to avoid the probability of fibers clumping [34,41].…”

“…The mechanical properties of DPF fibers are summarized in Table 2. The physical properties of DPF were investigated by [1,32,34,35,37] and summarized in Table 3. Kriker et al [35] conducted a scanning electron micrograph test on DPF mesh fiber as shown in Figure 2.…”

Experimental Study on the Effect of Date Palm Powder on the Thermal and Physico-Mechanical Properties of Gypsum Mortars

“…Asim et al [28] found that the addition of 50% date palm fibers to phenolic composites improved their tensile modulus and impact strength but reduced their tensile and flexural strength. Bamaga et al [29] found that mortars containing 10 mm and 20 mm date palm fibers had lower water absorption than control mortars, but also lower workability, density, and compressive strength. Chikhi et al [30] show that DPF loading may have a greater effect on the mechanical and thermal properties of the composites than fiber size.…”

Experimental investigation on three-body abrasive wear behaviour of novel natural cellulosic pigeon pea stalk fibre reinforced epoxy biocomposites

“…There is a huge demand for natural and renewable resources (plant fibres, animal fibres, and mineral fibres) in developing eco-friendly and sustainable composites owing to their surplus availability, low cost [1], less weight, hazard-free, reuse, less abrasiveness, renewability [2], and excellent biodegradability [3]. These materials are essential for fulfilling the present and future infrastructure demands in many sectors like civil construction (decking, cladding, and fencing), automotive components (inner door panel, seatbacks, and headliners), home appliances, food packaging [4], eco-friendly concrete [5] and so on.…”