Study of the Compressive Strength Characteristics of Cement Mortar Reinforced with Kenaf Fibre

Kenaf fibre is one of the product obtained from the kenaf plant and is abundant in many parts of the world. Research work carried out on the use of kenaf fibre to strengthen cement mortars as a building material showed good results. Cement mortar mixes were proportioned to incorporate fibre volume of between 1-3% and 10-30mm fibre length. Performance of the composite are evaluated with respect to the density, water absorption and compressive strength. From the results obtained, water absorption increased with fibre volume but still fell within the limits set by ASTM C 211-77. There was no significant effect on the density of the kenaf fibre cement mortar. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 5% level of significance showed that there is no statistical difference between the means of the compressive strength of plain mortar and those containing 1-3% fibre volume at 10mm fibre length. Regression models fitted on the compressive strength data showed a strong relationship between fibre volume, fibre length, and curing age.