Study of Physical and Mechanical Properties of Palm Fibers Reinforced Cementitious Matrix
Dr. Hana aljewifi 1, Hana Farhat2, Amal Edriss3 and Amal Mohamed4

The date palm is the one of the most cultivated palms around the world, since in Libya is ranked fifth in date palm cultivation; with about 4.6 million palm trees grown on an area of 27.5 thousand hectares.The present paper aims to characterize date-palm fibre-reinforced mortar, where different percent of palm fibers was added by substitution of a variable percentage of cement weight. Physical properties of fibers have been measured as volumetric density, coefficient of absorption and water content. Moreover, it is known that the natural fibers include high content of hydroxyl groups (OH) which causes the hydrophilic behavior. In order to improve this properties, palm fibers treated by immersing in alkaline solutions. Fresh mortar was studied through setting times and, for mortar cured up to 28 days, its composition which report C/S equal to 1/1.67 and W/ C = 0.57. The mechanical behavior of hardened reinforced matrix of different lengths (0.24 -19 cm) and kinds has been studied using compression test. The cubic specimens are removed after 24 hours and then conserved in water or in dry air denpending on the percentage of fibers at 28 days for mechanical testing.

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