Oil-palm empty fruit bunch fiber reinforcement in concrete-foam application for floating platform

Abstract

This paper focuses on fiber reinforcement of concrete-foam material (CFM) for floating platform. Oil-palm empty fruit bunch fiber (EFB-F) was selected to mix with CFM. Initially, three composition ratios of CFM were produced and tested to optimize the curing time. Then, the EFB-F was mixed with the optimized CFM. Several ratios of EFB-F and optimized CFM were used to study the effect of fiber reinforcement. Mechanical properties namely, compressive strength and tensile strength from flexural test were investigated. Several designs and compositions of the floating platform were studied to optimize strength and floatability (as composite material density). The research and testing results, it can be concluded that the cement-foam-EFB-F composite material has a higher density, resulting in higher compressive strength and tensile strength. Therefore, Oil-palm empty fruit bunch fiber, a waste material from manufacturing processes, can be utilized as an ingredient to improve the mechanical properties of foam cement for floating platforms.