Hair Fibre Reinforced Concrete

Abstract

Fibre reinforced concrete can offer a convenient, practical and economical method for overcoming micro-cracks and similar type of deficiencies. Since concrete is weak in tension hence some measures must be adopted to overcome this deficiency. Human hair is strong in tension; hence it can be used as a fibre reinforcement material. Hair Fibre (HF) an alternate non-degradable matter is available in abundance and at a very cheap cost. It also creates environmental problem for its decompositions. Present studies has been undertaken to study the effect of human hair on plain cement concrete on the basis of its compressive, crushing, flexural strength and cracking control to economise concrete and to reduce environmental problems. Experiments were conducted on concrete beams and cubes with various percentages of human hair fibre i.e. 0%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5% and 3% by weight of cement. For each combination of proportions of concrete one beam and three cubes are tested for their mechanical properties. By testing of cubes and beams we found that there is an increment in the various properties and strength of concrete by the addition of human hair as fibre reinforcement.