EXPLORATORY STUDY OF THE BEHAVIOR OF SOME LOCAL AGRICULTURAL RESIDUAL MATERIALS TO BE USED FOR REINFORCING CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Structural Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University.

2 Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University.

Abstract

ABSTRACT:
Although, many agricultural residues had been used in construction applications of the mankind history, but today most of them have become an overburden. Accordingly, burning of their accumulation has become annual habit causing environmental problem combined with the economical losses. Using agricultural residues, with suitable tensile strength, as reinforcing materials for construction materials had shown promising results in literature. In this research an exploratory study is implemented to investigate the physical and mechanical properties of some local materials to be used as reinforced elements for construction materials. As promising natural materials for reinforcing application, some parts of palm trees (e.g. ribs) and water reed stems are chosen for this study. The effect of some limited exposure conditions and protection techniques are also investigated on the tensile behavior of the selected natural materials. The explored materials show promising tensile behavior to be used for reinforcing applications but with low stiffness and durability. Although protection techniques, used in this research, are effective to solve the problem of durability and slippage in the short term, long tensile behavior of the explored residues need to be studied.