BANANA FIBER BRICKS

College of Engineering and Architecture

Angelo L. Maghuyop
Danica A. Dicen
Kathlyn Joiez A. Dolotina
Alvin M. Gulay
John Michael Autentico

April 2020
 BANANA FIBER BRICKS

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A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the College of Engineering and Architecture

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In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the

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Angelo L. Maghuyop
Danica A. Dicen
Kathlyn Joiez A. Dolotina
Alvin M. Gulay

April 2020
 TABE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

APPROVAL SHEET…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

CHAPTER

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study………………………………………………………………………………….

1.2 Statement of the Problem………………………………………………………………………………..

1.3 Objectives of the Study…………………………………………………………………………………….

construction and one of the most versatile. Traditionally, the term brick referred to a unit

composed of clay, but it is now used to denote rectangular units. Commonly, bricks is

used as walls, often served as the weather barrier, vapor retarder, insulator and

sometimes the interior finish of a structure

For today’s society, the demand of low cost and sustainable building materials is the

main issue. Natural building materials offer environmental benefits, which can be

produced as quickly as simple process without wondering about the high labor cost and

by using raw materials from plant wastes.

Banana plant or musa not only gives the delicious fruit but it also provides textile fiber,

the banana fiber. Banana fiber is a natural fiber

Over ten million hectares of Banana plantation exist in more than 160 countries globally,

which the Philippines produced some 9.36 million metric tons of bananas on 447,889

hectares, creating tons of banana waste. These waste have been left over to

decompose, emitting a huge amount of methane gas and a half-ton of carbon dioxide

per year and produces negative impact on the environment.

Study shows that when mixing concrete and banana fiber, it can cover the voids created

in the normal mixture of a concrete bricks but it is low in compressive strength. In the

other hand, mixing clay and banana fiber can possibly contradict since clay depend its

strength in the moisture and banana fiber is high in moisture absorbent properties.
This research focuses on the sustainability and affordability of bricks using banana fiber

as the main component. Also, spreading awareness of banana fiber as a possible

construction material.

1.2 Statement of the Study

The main purpose of the study was to made banana fiber brick which is a brick

with a banana fiber as a main component.

In particular, the study sought to answer the following questions:

1. What are the descriptive characteristics of banana fiber in increasing the

mechanical properties of bricks?

2. What will be the amount of load can be withstand by the banana reinforced

brick?

3. What are the variation of reinforced brick in regards to:

3.1 compressive strength; and

3.2 flexural strength?

4. What action plan can be established based on the result of the study

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The main objective of the study is to expose the importance of banana fiber as

the foundation of sustainable and economical bricks.

1. By using the agricultural materials such as natural fiber will increase the

mechanical properties of bricks.

2. To find the amount of load withstand by the banana reinforced brick.

4. To find the ability to resist crack and spall.

The large number of banana waste left after production can be considered a severe

threat to our environment. It is known that banana wastes create toxic chemicals such

as methane gas and carbon dioxide. We can lessen this unpleasant production by

creating useful and affordable materials made out of it. Bananas have natural fibers

which are less harmful to humans, machinery, and the environment. They do not only

have natural fibers but it can also be used for sustainable and economical construction

materials.

1.5 Scope and Limitations

This proposed study involves using banana fiber in the construction industry. The

banana fiber can be the effective natural material to reinforce concrete strength which

not only explore a way to improve the properties of bricks, but will also explore the use

of banana fibers in other ways. Since we haven’t conducted the study yet, we will focus

on studying the strength of banana fibers and the compatibility of bricks using banana

fibers. Brick (1) will be tested using the mixture of lime and sand and Brick (2) will be

tested using the mixture of concrete. The majority of the mixture on both bricks contains

banana fibers so that we can determine the compatibility of the said study. If the results

qualifies for the standard specifications, it will not only be low-cost, but also a feasible

material in the construction industry.

2.1 Introduction

Preethi & Balakrishnan studied the chemical and physical of banana fibers extracted

from the stem of different commercial banana cultivars. Preethi & Balakrishnan showed

significant variations between fiber stress and strain values among different cultivars of

banana. Also, they showed that the highest tensile strength and strain was in the

Nendran banana cultivar (288.7 MPa & 1.67%) and the lowest ones are observed in the

Grand Naine banana cultivar (24.6 MPa. & 1.02%). According to the high tensile

strength results of the banana fibers, this could significantly indicate their consequent

behavior as a natural reinforcement material in construction and building industries.

(Mostafa & Uddin, 2016)

Fibers can reduce the total cost of construction as they can be used as reinforcement,

replacing the traditional and energy consuming methods of wired mesh and steel

reinforcement bars. As a result, there will be less labor cost, less maintenance cost,

time saved from the construction works, and lower build cost. Energy will also be saved,

as the quantity of the fiber used is generally significantly less than the volume of raw

materials required to manufacture the traditional reinforcement. (Mohajerani et. al.,

2019)

Overall, there are many ways of incorporating fibers into construction materials. There is

also the potential for incorporating waste fibers into construction materials, which

utilizes waste materials (banana fibers), reduce the volume of landfill, save energy, is
environment friendly, and promotes sustainable solutions toward work in the industry.

(Mohajerani et. al., 2019)

2.2 Related Literature

Natural fibers are fibers that are naturally produced by plants, animals, and geological

processes. They can be matted into sheets to make products such as paper, felt or

fabric. Natural fibers are determined by such properties like length, pliability, strength,

abrasion resistance, elasticity, absorbency, and various surface properties that are

useful in commercial purposes. Natural fibers can be used as a component of

composite material, where the orientation of fibers influences the properties.

Considering its prime properties, natural fibers can be used as reinforcement in

concrete.

Concrete is strong in compression, as the aggregates efficiently carries the

compression load. However, it is weak in tension, as the cement holding the aggregate

in place can crack, allowing the structure to fail. Reinforced concrete adds steel

reinforcing bars, steel fibers, glass fiber, or plastic fiber to carry tensile loads. According

to Aziz et al., natural fibers are able to reinforce concrete and achieve the same

performance behavior as that of conventional fiber reinforced concrete coming from

steel and other inorganic/synthetic fibers.

The efficient way to increase concrete’s tensile strength, impact, and fatigue is the

addition of fibers in the blend. In that way, toughness and ductility are also improved
(Lee, 2017). According to the book, Construction and Building Materials, fibers increase

the tensile strength by controlling the propagation of cracks but cannot prevent the

formation of cracks in the composites (Lee et al., 2017). The use of fibers as

reinforcement in concrete reduces seepage water, permeability, improves both

compressive and tensile strength, increases abrasion resistance by 40% thereby

making for improved life of roads, walkways and industrial flooring (Patel et al., 2010).

According to Rai et. al (2014), the use of natural fibers in concrete mixes provides a

ductile post – cracking behavior of the fiber and has beneficial effects with respect in

increasing flexural strength.

One of the disadvantages of concrete is its inability to resist tensile stresses that can

result in the formation of cracks. By overcoming this limitation, reinforcement should be

done. Reinforcing a concrete is by adding fiber materials on plain concrete where these

fiber materials can be natural fibers that exhibit the same performance behavior as that

of conventional fiber reinforced concrete coming from steel and other synthetic fibers.

Natural fibers give additional strength that increases the resistance of concrete on

tensile stresses by controlling the propagation of cracks but cannot prevent the

formation of cracks in the composite. Thus, using natural fibers as concrete

reinforcement prevents further cracking and increases concrete’s flexural strength.

The main aim of reinforcing a concrete is to increase its tensile strength, making it

strong and improve its structural life. Highly strong natural fiber can be used in order to
attain this aim where it can prolong concrete’s life amidst different factors affecting its

deterioration commonly, concrete cracking.

There is a raise of interest from engineers, researchers, professionals, and scientist

regarding the use of natural fibers as an alternative for reinforcement, due to its superior

properties such as high specific strength, low cost, low weight, fairly good mechanical

properties, eco – friendly, non – abrasive, and bio – degradable characteristics.

2.3 Related Studies

Bhatnagar, Gupta, and Yadav (2015) studied the composition and properties of banana

fibers. The objective of the study is to utilize the advantages offered by renewable

resources for the development of composite materials based on banana fibers. The

study revealed that the properties of banana fibers provide better chemical composition

and properties. The utilization and application of the cheaper goods in high-performance

appliance is possible with the help of this composite technology. Combining the useful

properties of two different materials, cheaper manufacturing cost, versatility, etc., makes

them useful in various fields of engineering and high-performance applications.

Mostafa and Uddin (2016) conducted an experimental analysis of compressed earth

block with banana fibers resisting flexural and compression forces. The main focus in

this case study is to establish a new model of compressed earth block with banana

fibers by adding natural banana fibers that will create stronger, more durable, and

sustainable materials. From the experimental work, it is concluded that the blocks
constructed by adding banana fibers throughout the mix performed better than the block

with no fibers in both compressive and flexural strength. Strength increase was due to

the creation of an isotropic matrix between the structure soil mix and the fiber network;

such a matrix opposed movement of particles and created stability mainly because

fibers appeared to distribute tension throughout the bulk of the material. In other words,

the presence of all-directional fibers improved tensile and compressive strength, which

was contributed to banana fibers.

Abiola (2017) studied the natural fiber in concrete. The study revealed that pulping is

one of the fiber treatments that improve fiber adhesion to the cement matrix and also

resistance to alkaline attack.

Tirkey and Ramesh (2018) experimented the use of banana peel and its leaf being

mixed with different grades of concrete which resulted in good tensile strength and with

an amount of decrease in cement content. The main aim of mixing this types of

constituents to concrete are to avoid crack, to maintain sustainability, to gain durability

and to gain the flexural strength. It was found that with fiber reinforcement the intensity

of cracks development in the concrete is lesser than the conventional one. The split

tensile strength is increased with the increment of fiber content in the concrete.

Barış and Tanaçan (2019) investigated the influence of the fiber length on the behavior

of the cement-based composite to increase the commercial and ecological added value

of banana-waste and to find out the possibility of banana fiber used as a dispersed

phase in cement composites. The study revealed that the addition of banana waste

fibers considerably increases many of the engineering properties of the cement matrix,

especially the flexural strength. On the other hand, especially the staple type of banana
fibers negatively affects the compressive strength of the matrix because of creating

more voids. Pulp-fiber reinforced cement composites show better physical and

mechanical characteristics than staple-fiber reinforced cement composites due to their

higher mechanical interlocking between the fiber surface and cement hydration

products.

Sivamani (2019) studied the behavior of low-cost tiles and bricks manufactured using

agricultural wastes. Red soil, pre-treated waste materials like rice husk ash, sugarcane

bagasse ash, banana fiber, and waste sludge and chemical activators like Sodium

hydroxide in combination with Sodium silicate solution were used as raw materials for

the manufacturing of bricks and tiles. It is found that usage of finer waste materials such

as Sugarcane Bagasse Ash and Rice Husk Ash at lesser ratios and Banana Fibers,

Waste Sludge and Red Soil at higher ratios will result in the effective production of

bricks and tiles and efficient disposal of wastes leading to an economical and

sustainable environment.

Pawar et al. (2018) studied the admixtures (Fly ash, Silica fume) and banana fiber to

enhance the properties of concrete and comparing the result of concrete regard

compressive strength. Achieved a concrete mix of greater strength than conventional

mix strength. It has been observed that the incorporation of banana fiber as adding to

cement in fresh and plain concrete increases workability when compared to the

workability about concrete made without banana fiber. The mix with adding banana fiber

5% has shown good strength properties like compressive and tensile. This may be

since the CSH gel formed at this percentage is of good quality and have better

composition. The mix with adding banana fiber 10% has shown good flexural strength. It
has also been observed that by using banana fiber can go up to 15% safely although

the strength values are less.