CO-CO. ArtFill Project. Bryan, Texas.
Concrete Panels with coconut fiber reinforcement.
Team: Gabriel Esquivel, Dr. John Nichols, Jorge Cruz, Steven Hewett, Jeff Lemley, Eli Wood.
Concrete Mix: Knife River, Bryan, Texas.
Thanks to Renee and Chris Lawrence.
Concrete Mix: Knife River, Bryan, Texas.
Thanks to Renee and Chris Lawrence.
There is currently a great deal of interest in developing
the technology for using natural fiber materials in cement composites.
Natural fibers have been used to reinforce inorganic materials for thousands of
years. This project examines the effect of twined coconut fibers as
reinforcement to 10’ x 10’ concrete panels. For treatment, 25% twined coconut
fibers will be added as reinforcement.
The panel is a porous ornamented panel, which is more a study of small
façades. This panel size has never been done, thus the importance of this
project.
Flexural tests have been carried out on prototype panels to
determine their strength with different volume fractions and aspect ratios of
fibers. The casting will be done on site to avoid transportation. Each panels
weighs about 2,000 lbs.
