The performance of concrete cube with fiber from Betong bamboo as the strengthener

Recently, the problems faced by the construction industry is a significant shortage of raw materials. Thus, various methods were being adopted to reduce the use of raw material in concrete. Therefore, this paper will focus on the research of the bamboo fiber as a strengthening material in concrete. In Malaysia, the source of bamboo was wide and easily obtained. Its fast growth rate made the bamboo a good crop for environmental conservation efforts and can be easily cultivated and harvested in a short time. The tensile strength of the bamboo is relatively high and can reach 200-300 MPa. Thus, the use of the bamboo as a strengthening in concrete is suitable and might replace the existing materials in the future. Next, the research objectives of this study are to investigate the compressive strength of concrete with the various quantities of bamboo fiber, to compare the structural strength performance between concrete with the bamboo fiber and the ordinary concrete, and to determine the optimum percentage of the bamboo fiber that gives the highest strength in concrete. The experimental work consists of casting and testing the 100 x 100 x 100 mm cubes with an additive of bamboo fiber (0.5%, 0.6%, 0.65%, 0.7%, 0.75%, 0.8%, 0.9%) and standard or ordinary concrete cube. In order to investigate the compressive strength of the cubes, the compressive test has been carried out and the results will be compared. However, there are some review papers that have been done for bamboo fiber and also coconut fiber. The result from bamboo fiber is to compare with this experiment that also uses the same material. But, for the coconut fiber, it is just to get the result of the concrete strengthening from the other material that is used as an additive in concrete. Besides aiming to the reduction of raw material usage in concrete and structures self-weight, the idea of this research could be used and implemented in producing other structures especially that involve in concrete.