Properties of Fiber Cement Boards for Building Partitions

摘要

This work demonstrates the use of untreated coir fibers to produce fiber cement boards which can be used for building partitions. The untreated coir fiber was added in order to replace cement in these boards. The design mix ratio was selected as 3:1 (cement: sand), where cement was replaced by untreated coir fibers by weight percentage of 5%, 10% and 15%. A constant water cement ratio of 0.46 was taken. Samples with size 150×150×10mm were tested for density test, water absorption test, whereas samples with size 250×250×10mm were tested for impact test and determining drilling characteristics of the boards. The samples were analyzed after 28 days of curing and it was observed that the density of the boards decreased with percentage increase in fiber content, the impact resistance and the amount of water absorbed by the boards increased with increase in fiber content. The boards also showed good drilling characteristics.