Investigation on the influence of date palm fiber on the strength and durability of concrete with rice husk ash as partial replacement of cement

The utilization of waste materials in concrete production has gained significant attention in recent years as a sustainable approach to mitigate environmental concerns and enhance the performance of construction materials. This research presents the results of laboratory work carried out to determine the strength of concrete reinforced with date palm fiber while replacing cement partially with rice husk ash (RHA). The effect of the use of Date palm fiber was investigated on grade 15 concrete (1:2:4) with water cement ratio of 0.5 with an addition of date palm fiber at 0.5% and replacement of cement with rice husk ash at 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% of concrete composite. A total of 45 cubes and 45 cylinders were cast to evaluate the workability of freshly mixed concrete, the compressive strength and split tensile strength after 7, 14 and 28 days of curing. Preliminary tests were also carried out to determine some physical/mechanical properties of the materials used, these tests include; Specific Gravity Tests, Sieve Analysis, Crushing Value Tests, Impact Value Tests, Normal Consistency Tests, Setting Time Tests, and Soundness Tests. The results indicate that the optimal compressive strength was achieved with a 10% RHA replacement with the following values; 9.3N/mm2, 11.1N/mm2, 16.9N/mm2, 11.8N/mm2 and 11.7N/mm2 after 28 days of curing. Conversely, the optimum split tensile strength was observed at 5% RHA replacement, measuring; 7.6N/mm2, 7.0N/mm2, 6.4 N/mm2, 5.7N/mm2 and 5.2N/mm2 over the same period.