Materials Today: Proceedings 21 (2020) 488–491

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Materials Today: Proceedings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr

Effect of coconut coir pith as partial substitute for river sand

in eco-friendly concrete
A. Oorkalan a, S. Chithra b
a
Department of Civil Engineering, K. Ramakrishnan College of Technology, Trichy 621112, Tamilnadu, India
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Government College of Technology, Coimbatore 641013, Tamilnadu, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: India is one of the largest producers of coconut crop in the world. Coconut coir pith is an organic tiny par-
Received 21 May 2019 ticle obtained from coconut based industry and is of lignocellulosic nature. Disposal of coir pith by land
Accepted 17 June 2019 filling poses severe environmental issues. On the other hand, limited availability of natural resources,
Available online 16 July 2019
namely, river sand and potable water is a major problem that cannot cater the increasing demands of
construction industry. The present investigation explores the possible utilization of an agro waste,
Keywords: namely, raw and untreated coconut coir pith as partial substitute for natural sand in concrete under nor-
Coconut coir pith
mal curing and self curing conditions. Tests were performed to determine the compressive strength, split
Fly ash
Self-curing
tensile strength and flexural strength at various ages. SEM images were used to study the morphology of
Mechanical properties formed hydrates. High water absorption and retention capacity of coconut coir pith limits their use in
SEM analysis concrete. Usage of coconut coir pith as sand replacement material can be a solution to maintain sustain-
able environment by the way of reduction in energy and non renewable resources.
Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Recent
Trends in Nanomaterials for Energy, Environmental and Engineering Applications.

1. Introduction industry, mainly, concrete production is a challenge faced by the

Concrete is the most utilized man made material in the world.
Though concrete production results in the consumption of large
quantity of non-renewable natural resources, its use is increasing
day by day due to the availability of abundant raw materials, ease
of mouldability to required shape and size, aesthetic appearance
many more. But excess use of natural resources affects the sustain-
ability of environment. It is worthy to mention that concrete can be
made as an eco-friendly material when its constituents are par-
tially or fully replaced by wastes derived from domestic, industry
and agricultural sectors. The constituents of concrete are compati-
ble with other replacement materials thus resulting in a sustain-
able construction product.
Reutilization of waste materials in concrete proves to be ecolog-
ically advantageous. Industrial wastes includes C&D waste [1],
quarry dust [2], copper slag [3], GGBS [4] etc., are found to increase
the performance of cement mortar and concrete. Agro wastes
namely rice husk ash [5], coir pith [6], coconut fiber [7] are used
as addition or replacement materials in concrete. Most of the above
waste materials have low economic value and they are disposed by
dumping and land filling. Reuse of agro waste in construction
material scientist and researcher.
Curing is an important stage in the production of concrete which
maintains the degree of cement hydration to develop satisfactory
properties. Adequate amount of water should be maintained either
externally or internally for cement hydration to occur. As per
ACI-308 code, internal curing refers to the process by which the
hydration of cement occurs because of the availability of additional
internal water that is not part of mixing water. Internal curing is
achieved by means of saturated lightweight fine aggregates, super-
absorbent polymers or saturated wood fibers. Coir pith is locally
available in surplus quantity and its potential applications on con-
struction materials are minimal. The present studies aims at the
investigation of possible utilization of coir pith as partial replace-
ment of sand in concrete and evaluate the effect of coir pith in the
performance of self-curing concrete due to its water holding
capacity.
2. Materials and methods
Ordinary Portland cement of 53 grade was used as the main
binder for the production of concrete. Locally available river sand

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.639
2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Recent Trends in Nanomaterials for Energy, Environmental and Engineering
Applications.
 A. Oorkalan, S. Chithra / Materials Today: Proceedings 21 (2020) 488–491 489

with bulk density and water absorption values of 1612 kg/m3 and The concrete mix with 5% coir pith showed the highest strength
0.5% respectively was used as fine aggregate. Crushed granite from among the concrete mixes produced with various replacement
nearby quarry with bulk density of 1636 kg/m3 was used as coarse levels of coir pith. Beyond 5% replacement of coir pith, there is a
aggregate. Tap water available in the institution campus was used gradual decline in strength. The compressive strength of standard
for mixing and curing of concrete. Coir pith was obtained from water cured and self-cured concrete mix containing 5% coir pith
nearby coir industry (which is dumped as waste) after extracting is reduced by 21.8% and 23.4% respectively when compared with
coir fibers from the outer cover of coconut. conventional concrete mix at the age of 28 days. The strength of
Concrete specimens were cast by partially replacing river sand self-cured concrete mix with 5% coir pith is reduced by 2% than
with coconut coir pith of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 30% at constant standard water cured concrete mix. The decrease in strength is
W/C ratio of 0.45. Mix proportions were arrived based on IS mainly attributed to the quantity of water absorbed and retained
10262: 2009 (Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi). Workability in the coir pith.
was measured using slump cone apparatus. Compressive strength
test at the age of 3, 7 and 28 days was done using 150 mm size
4. Splitting tensile strength and flexural strength
cube (Total: 99 specimens). Splitting tensile strength test at 3, 7
and 28 days were performed on 150 mm  300 mm cylinder spec-
The splitting tensile strength of concrete mixes with various
imens (Total: 99 specimens) and flexural strength test at 7 and
replacement percentages of coir pith as partial fine aggregate sub-
28 days were performed on 150 mm  150 mm  700 mm prism
jected to standard water curing and self-curing conditions is
specimens (Total: 66 specimens). The specimens were cast and
depicted in Table 2. The trend is similar to compressive strength
tested in triplicates. Two sets of specimens were cast for each test,
development. The splitting tensile strength at early ages is nearer
as one set of specimens were subjected to standard water curing
to the conventional concrete mix but at later ages, there is a wide
up to the age of testing and the second set of specimens were
variation in the development of splitting tensile strength. There is a
allowed for self-curing.
reduction of 18.12% and 27.65% of splitting tensile strength for nor-
mal water cured and self cured concrete at the age of 28 days.
The flexural strength development of concrete mixes at 7 and
3. Results and discussion
28 days of curing are exhibited in Table 2. The flexural strength
of concrete mix containing 5% coir pith is comparable with conven-
3.1. Workability and compressive strength
tional concrete mix. The reduction of flexural strength at the age of
28 days is just 3% and 4.6% for concrete mix containing 5% coir pith
The workability of the concrete mixes containing 5%, 10%, 15%,
subjected to water curing and self curing respectively. It is worth to
20% and 30% of coir pith as partial fine aggregate were measured
mention that the flexural strength of concrete mixes with 5% coir
using slump cone. From the results presented in Table 1, it is seen
pith subjected to standard water curing and self-curing are compa-
that there is no much difference in workability for conventional
rable. The behaviors of specimens are different for splitting tensile
concrete and 5% coir pith concrete mix. There is sudden increase
test and flexural test. The result implies that concrete with 5% coir
of workability up on increasing the coir pith content in concrete
pith improves the ductility of the specimen by delaying the prop-
mixes. This may be attributed to the high quantity of water
agation of cracks and improves the energy absorption capacity. The
absorbed by the coir pith particles. There is a reduction in density
fracture toughness of wood particle incorporated cements compos-
of the concrete mixes containing coir pith which implies that it can
ites and cement composites reinforced with cellulosic fibers are
be better material for producing lightweight concrete. Brasileiro
reported to improve, as shown in stress strain curves with ductile
et al. [6] reported improved ductile behavior of cementitious com-
fracture and hence can be recommended for architectural applica-
posites due to distend and energy absorbing nature of soft and flex-
tions and structures subjected to minimal load [8].
ible coir pith particles. It was also reported that the coir pith can be
used as fine aggregate in lightweight composites.
Table 2 presents the cube compressive strength of concrete 5. Micro structural analysis
mixes containing 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 30% of coir pith as partial
fine aggregate subjected to standard water curing and self-curing. 5.1. Scanning electron microscopy analysis (SEM)
From the results, it is clear that the conventional concrete mix
achieved the required target strength at all days of curing. Concrete Fig. 1 shows SEM image at 10,000 Magnification of conventional
mixes containing coir pith shows reduced strength than conven- concrete after 28 days of curing. Dense formation of C-S-H can be
tional concrete mix for water curing and self-curing conditions. seen in the image which resulted in better strength at the specified

Table 1
Details of mix proportion.

Sl. No. Specimen ID Quantity of materials in kg/m3 Type of curing Slump Density
in mm in kg/m3
Cement Sand Coir pith Coarse aggregate Water
1 CON 413.33 564.16 – 1159.6 186 Standard water 50 2530.37
2 CPC5 413.33 535.95 28.21 1159.6 186 curing 50 2512.59
3 CPC10 413.33 507.74 56.42 1159.6 186 140 2429.62
4 CPC15 413.33 479.54 84.62 1159.6 186 165 2447.41
5 CPC20 413.33 451.33 112.83 1159.6 186 170 2352.59
6 CPC30 413.33 394.91 169.25 1159.6 186 180 2340.74
7 CPC5S 413.33 535.95 28.21 1159.6 186 Self- curing 50 2488.88
8 CPC10S 413.33 507.74 56.42 1159.6 186 140 2459.25
9 CPC15S 413.33 479.54 84.62 1159.6 186 165 2429.62
10 CPC20S 413.33 451.33 112.83 1159.6 186 170 2400
11 CPC30S 413.33 394.91 169.25 1159.6 186 180 2275.55
490 A. Oorkalan, S. Chithra / Materials Today: Proceedings 21 (2020) 488–491

Table 2
strength of concrete mixes under water curing and self curing.

Sl. No. Specimen ID Compressive strength MPa Tensile strength MPa Flexural strength
MPa
1 CON 21.55 31.55 38.53 2.66 3.43 4.05 4.33 4.99
2 CPC5 18.18 25.4 30.13 2.62 3.02 3.31 4.12 4.84
3 CPC10 17.07 23.91 27.42 1.99 2.54 2.7 3.96 4.38
4 CPC15 14.22 21.06 24.57 1.69 2.17 2.28 3.63 4.04
5 CPC20 9.18 12.13 15.78 1.45 1.73 2.11 3.09 3.83
6 CPC30 7.2 9.57 13.2 1.15 1.26 1.73 1.43 2.14
7 CPC5S 15.37 21.76 29.5 2.36 2.7 2.93 4.23 4.76
8 CPC10S 12.57 16.84 25.96 1.97 2.45 2.68 3.98 4.36
9 CPC15S 11.32 14.17 19.9 1.67 2.15 2.24 3.62 4.02
10 CPC20S 8.08 11.02 14.98 1.42 1.7 2.05 3.11 3.78
11 CPC30S 6.6 8.89 13.47 1.13 1.25 1.71 1.71 2.12

Fig. 3. Coir Pith of 5% under Self-curing.

Fig. 1. Conventional mix.

containing coir pith. Also the initially formed CSH gel restricted
the available water to react with the un-hydrated cement particles
thus stopping further hydration. Some un-hydrated cement parti-
cles are clearly visible in Fig. 3. It can be concluded that the coir
pith particles can be effectively used as natural self-curing agent
in concrete.

6. Conclusions

The main objective of this study is to ascertain the feasibility of

Fig. 2. Coir Pith of 5% under water curing.
curing age. Fig. 2 represents the SEM image of CPC5 concrete mix
subjected to water curing. In this image, wide spread formation
of C-S-H is visible but some voids are notable between the C-S-H
gels. The denseness of the matrix is inferior when compared with
the conventional concrete mix. This is comparable with the exper-
imental results of compressive strength test that, the concrete mix
containing 5% coir pith as sand replacement material subjected to
water curing reported a decline in strength than the conventional
concrete mix. The SEM micrograph of concrete mix made with
5% coir pith allowed for self-curing is exhibited in Fig. 3. Although
good formation of C-S-H is evident, it is accompanied with more
interconnected voids. This may be due to the presence of water
held in the coir pith particles which after hydration and evapora-
tion resulted in voids. The performance of concrete mix containing
5% coir pith was nearly equal when subjected to water curing and
self-curing. The appearance of CSH gel is similar for concrete
utilization of untreated coconut coir pith as partial replacement of
fine aggregate in concrete and the conclusions are Coconut coir
pith particles can be used as partial substitute of sand in concrete.
The workability of concrete made with 5% coconut coir pith exhi-
bits comparable workability with the conventional concrete,
beyond which there is a substantial increase in workability due
to the presence of excess water stored in the coir pith particles.
Concrete produced with 5% coconut coir pith as partial fine aggre-
gate has slightly less, but comparable strength with reference con-
crete for both water curing and self-curing conditions. The decline
in strength is due to the formation of voids in the region where the
stored water gets evaporated after due course of time. Incorpora-
tion of coir pith particles delays the propagation of cracks and per-
forms well in flexure. The formation of C-S-H gel in concrete
containing coir pith particles is associated with interconnected
voids which indicate the formation of voids which was originally
filled with water. Concrete containing coir pith as partial fine
aggregate can be used for making non-structural construction
products. Development of energy efficient and low cost materials
like coir pith, as a partial substitute of concrete constituents will
enhance the value of waste materials, especially in the countries
producing more coir based products. Though the study has
reported the possibility of utilization of coir pith as partial sand
replacement material, more research is required towards the
 A. Oorkalan, S. Chithra / Materials Today: Proceedings 21 (2020) 488–491
enhancement of mechanical and durability properties of concrete
containing coconut coir pith and improving the compatibility
between cement matrix and coir pith.
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