Experimental Study of Porous Concrete with Addition of Fiber Variations

Abstract

Porous concrete is concrete without fine aggregate and consist of coarse aggregate, cement and water. To improve the mechanical properties of the porous concrete, one of which is with addition of fiber. The fiber material used in this study was obtained from the natural fibers of coconut fibers and artificial fibers that is polypropylene fibers. This study aimed to determine the effect of the natural fibers of coconut fiber and the artificial fibers of polypropylene fibers to characteristics of porous concrete with addition of fiber variations. Characteristics testing of porous concrete which include the percentage of pore volume, volume weight, compressive strength and split tensile strength. This research is conducted in the civil engineering’s laboratory of structures and materials , UKI-Paulus makassar, with a cylindrical specimen with diameter 15 x 30 cm as much 84 specimens with the add ition of fiber 0%, 0.1%, 0.2%, and 0.3 % of the weight of porous concrete. The testing of compressive strength and split tensile strength for porous concrete specimens on age 7, 21, 28 days. Porous concrete test results with the addition of polypropylene fibers showed the largest pore volume is 22.836%. While porous concrete with the addition of coconut fiber, the largest percentage of the pore volume is 25.607%. Weight volume of concrete with the addition of polypropylene fiber highest 1894.787kg / cm3. For weight volume of concrete with the addition of coconut fiber highest is 1823.473kg / cm3. For concrete strength testing, porous concrete value’s with the addition of polypropylene fiber is obtained 13.966 MPa for compressive strength and split tensile strength is obtained 1.793 MPa, while the compressive strength and split tensile strength in the porous concrete with the addition of coconut fiber is obtained 12.096 MPa and 1,911MPa, respectively. With fiber addition into a porous concrete, compressive strength’s value is decreased but the split tensile strength’s value increased with an increased volume of fibers and transform a brittle concrete material becomes more ductile material.