COMPARATIVE STUDY OF STRENGTH OF BAMBOO CANE FIBRE CONCRETE BEAM AND REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAM

CHAPTER ONE

1.0        INTRODUCTION     

     Bamboo is a natural material found in abundance in tropical Africa with good physical and high mechanical properties.

     Bamboo is unique both in tension and compression and has hit its mark in various part of the world as a good structural material. Bamboo for its reputation is therefore introduced as reinforcement in concrete. Bamboo serves as a reinforcement and cane fiber another material with high strength and aspect ratio serve as links. Research into the tensile strength added by bamboo cane fiber to concrete is to be carried out. (Aziz and lee, 2006)

    Steel: is very important as building materials used extensively in structural engineering. It is manufactured from Iron ore (mid or quarried in certain part of country). Which is subject to a very high temperature. (Mc kay, 1992).

   Concrete is a composite material primarily made up of course aggregate of insert nature and a binding material. The binding material serves the purpose of filling the void with in the aggregate and holding the aggregate together tightly. The aggregate are differentiated by a called grading. Grading is done using sieve analysis (Troxell, 1956).

   The binding agent in most cases is Portland cement and it is mixed with portable water to form a paste which is mixed with aggregate to form concrete. Concrete hardness up in a process called setting after being placed with a pre-fabrication form work to form a solid structure material (Ferguson, 1997).

   In concrete mixture, the overall proportion of the principle component (cement, fine aggregate, water, coarse aggregate) the binder and aggregate are controlled by the following requirement.

1.       When freshly mixed, the mass must be workable or place able. The properly is referred to as workability and it is dependent on the amount of water present. The more the water beyond the optimum moisture constant, the less the strength and vice-versa.                           

2.       When the mass hardens, it posses strength and durability adequate for the purpose for which it is intended.

3.       Cost of final product is the minimum possible for the accepted quality.

          The above listed requirement summarize the properties of concrete such as strength, elasticity, water tightness resistance to destructive agencies, volume change, creep extensible and thermal properties.

          The primary function of all structure is to carry load or to resist applied forces of whatever nature. (Troxell, 1956) defined concrete strength as the ability to carry out the function is dependent on the strength of the structure, as the unit force stress required to cause rupture or upset.

          Rupture or upset may be caused by applied tensile stress (failure in cohesion) by applied shearing (sliding) stress or by compressive (rushing) stress.

          Concrete is a brittle material which is much weaker intension than in compression. Concrete will bear compression force with in it is carrying capacity. It is not expected to resist direct tensile force due to its low tensile strength and brittle nature. Tension is important because it caused cracking (a form of tensile failure). The weakness of concrete has initiated the need to provide concrete with the tensile strength it lacks. This is done by introducing into concrete as material that has good tensile properties. The most commonly used reinforcement is steel and it has proven very good but for slight flaws such as high cost of procurement and its relative scarcity.

          There is need to search for an alternative that is cheap that is in abundance and at the same time locally available (Oyenuga, 2008).

1.1.   Aim of the Study

          The man aim o f the project study is to know how bamboo cane fibre can be used in the absence of steel so as to reduce the cost of production of concrete.

1.2.   Objectives of the Study

1.       To reduce the cost of construction material by using another material that can be readily found locally.

2.       To determine the contribution of bamboo-cane fibre to the strength of reinforced concrete to that of bamboo-cane composite.

1.3.   Scope of the Project

          The project deals with the dimension of beam to be used the width of the beam is directly influenced by the width of bamboo split to be used and reinforce to be used.

-        Bamboo used is matured and should be double split i.e. the dried mature bamboo split 3/4 equal 16mm size, place 3top and 3bottom.

-        16mm split bamboo, 3top split bamboo and 3bottom split bamboo are hold with stirrup bamboo with steel stirrup.

-        16mm steel 3 top and 3 bottoms are hold with stirrup and binding wire

-        Mix Ratio: is 1:3:6 and 1:2:4

          The proportion is 1 part of cement to 3 part of fine aggregate; add to 6 part of coarse aggregate and 1part of cement to 2 part of fine aggregate, add to 4 part of coarse aggregate. 

-Water: is the quality of the water used in mixing the concrete must be such that the chemical reaction which take place during the setting of the cement, are not impaired (Victor O. Oyenuga, 2008).

1.4    Limitations of the Study

          Limitation of the study are as follows:

1.       Inadequate fund.

2.       High cost of materials used for the beams.

3.       Transportation problem.