Structural Performance of Mangrove Reinforced Concrete Beam and Column Elements

Abstract

More often, steel is used as reinforcement in concrete because of its high tensile strength. Unfortunately steel is not produced in all parts of the world hence leading to a higher cost of steel that has to be imported from abroad, resulting in higher cost for housing. This study evaluates the potential to utilize mangrove as reinforcement in concrete structural members. A total of three singly mangrove reinforced beams (beams reinforced with two mangrove poles) and nine doubly mangrove reinforced beams (beams reinforced with four mangroves) of 1100 mm length having 150 mm width and 250 mm depth reinforced variably were tested in flexure and compared with steel reinforced concrete control beams. Flexural test on mangrove reinforced beams demonstrated that using mangrove as reinforcement in concrete can increases the load carrying capacity of reinforced concrete beam having the same dimensions. Besides, 18 small-scale short square columns having the same cross section of 87 x 87 mm and 350 mm in height with different types of reinforcement were tested under concentric loading to investigate strength capacity, deflection and failure patterns. The results showed that the load carrying capacity of the column increased with decrease in percentage of mangrove reinforcement for columns reinforced with four mangrove poles and the increase is not proportional to the percentage of reinforcement. It is also determined that mangrove poles have enhanced the ductility of columns compared to the plain concrete column.