Scientific publications
Mizi Fan
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Twelve commercially available tropical wood natural fiber species and their cementitious composites were thoroughly studied for possible production of natural fiber cementitious composites (NFCCs) through (1) the determination of chemical constituents of the fiber species, (2) determination of compatibility of natural fiber cement and correlation of the compatibility with chemical constituents, and (3) examination of the mechanical property of NFCC and its correlation with the compatibility and chemical constituents of wood natural fibers. The results showed that (1) the chemical constituents of the 12 tropical wood fibrous materials varied considerably from one another, with cellulose content ranging between 40 and 57%, lignin ranging between 21 and 34%, and solubility ranging between 2.40 and 29.06% depending on the type of solutions, (2) pH values were below 7 for all natural fibers tested (pH of 3.36–6.22), and the acid-to-base ratio (ABR) values were no greater than 1, indicating that the base buffering capacity (BBC) values were higher than the acid buffering capacity (ABC) values, (3) the compatibility reduced as the wood natural fiber content increased and was polynomially correlated to the solubility of the wood natural fiber species, (4) mechanical properties of NFCC decreased as the fiber content increased, with the highest bending strength (7.21 MPa) and compressive strength (33.18 MPa) for movingui NFCC corresponding to the lowest hot water and Ca(OH)2 solubility; the lowest bending and compressive strengths (0 MPa) were for both moabi and doussie NFCCs corresponding to their high solubility contents, and (5) the five best natural fiber species studied for NFCCs were movingui, nkanang, eyong, tali, and padauk, whereas the least suitable two were moabi and doussie. The results provided a fundamental and essential database and technologies for better understanding tropical wood natural fiber species to use them as value-added commercial products in the construction industry and further academic research.
