Development of coconut fiber reinforced cement composites with the addition of fly ash

This research was conducted to study the coconut fiber reinforced cement composites with the addition of fly ash in cement panel. Ordinary Portland cement, coconut fiber, fly ash, sand and water were the main raw materials used in this project. The development of coconut fiber reinforced cement composites was carried out by substituting fly ash to portion of sand based on its ratio. in this study, the ratio used to the mixture were 1 : 0.2 : 0.8: 0.03, 1 : 0.2: 0.8 : 0.06, 1: 0.2 : 0.8: 0.09, 1 : 0.2 : 0.8 : 0.12, 1 : 0. 2 : 0. 8 : 0.15 (cement : fly ash : sand : coconut fiber) . The water to cement ratio were varied regarding to the fiber content. The sizes of the sample tested were, 160 mm x 40 mm x 40 mm for compression test while 100 mm x 100 mm x -10 mm for density, moisture content and water absorption tests. The samples were cured for 7 days, 14 days and 28 days respectively in water. The result indicates that the cement composites with 9 wt. % of coconut .fiber gives the high value of compressive strength and modulus ofrupture while 20 wt. %of fly ash and 80 wt. %sand was found to be a suitable ratio for this cement composites. It was observed that, increasing fiber content will decrease the density while moisture content and water absorption percentages were increased.