Abstract—Emphasis on the advancement of new materials and technology has been there for the past few decades. The global development towards using cheap and durable materials from renewable resources contributes to sustainable development. An experimental investigation of mechanical behaviour of sisal fibre- reinforced concrete is reported for making a suitable building material in terms of reinforcement. Fibre reinforced Composite is one such material, which has reformed the concept of high strength. Sisal fibres are abundantly available in the hot areas. Sisal fibre has emerged as a reinforcing material for concretes, used in civil structures. In this work, properties such as hardness and tensile strength of sisal fibre reinforced cement composites with 6, 12, 18 and 24% by weight of sisal fibres were assessed. Sisal fibre reinforced cement composite slabs with long sisal fibres were manufactured using a cast hand lay up technique. Mechanical response was measured under tension. The high energy absorption capacity of the developed composite system was reflected in high toughness values under tension respectively. Keywords—Sisal fibre, fibre-reinforced concrete, mechanical behaviour. I. INTRODUCTION ATURAL fibres are now considered as a suitable reinforcing material in concrete, due to their greater advantages, which include low cost, high strength-to-weight ratio, and recyclability. The benefit of composite materials over conventional materials seams largely from their higher specific strength, stiffness and fatigue characteristics, which enable structural design to be more versatile. Natural fibres are expected to be the reinforcing materials and their use until now has been more traditional than technical. They have long served many functional purposes but the application of materials technology for the consumption of natural fibres as the reinforcement in concrete has only taken place in comparatively current years. Sisal fibre is obtained from the leaves of the plant Agave sisalana, which was originated from Mexico and is now mainly cultivated in East Africa, Brazil, Haiti, India and Indonesia. The name “sisal” comes from a harbour town in Yucatan, Maya, Mexico [1]-[2]. It is grouped under the broad heading of the “hard fibres” among which sisal is placed second to manila in durability and strength [3]. Fibres have been used to toughen bricks and pottery since the very beginning of civilization, but only in the last twenty five years have the principles of fibre reinforcement of brittle matrices began to be scientifically implicit. In recent years, a great transaction of notice has been created world wide on the Dr. M. Aruna is with the Mechanical Engineering Department, Velammal College of Engineering and Technology, Madurai, 625 009, Tamil Nadu, India (e-mail: mar@vcet.ac.in). potential applications of natural fibre reinforced, cement based composites. Investigations have been carried out in many countries on various mechanical properties, physical performance and durability of cement based matrices reinforced with naturally occurring fibres including sisal, coconut, jute, bamboo and wood fibres. These fibres have always been considered promising as reinforcement of cement based matrices because of their availability, low cost and low consumption of energy [4]. A sequential progress of sisal fibre reinforced, cement based matrices is reported and experimental data are provided to illustrate the performance of sisal fibre reinforced cement composites. Studies of sisal fibre reinforced concrete were started in Sweden in 1971 by Nilsson [1]. Cut fibres with a length of 10- 30mm were cast into beams and an improvement in the tensile strength in bending was observed for fibre reinforced specimens. It was found that toughness increased markedly when continuous fibre was used. In 1977 the Building Research Unit (BRU) in Dar es Salaam started collaboration on the development of roof sheets on natural fibre reinforced concrete with the Swedish Cement and Concrete Research Institute [5]-[9]. Test sheets were manufactured for durability experiments. A special roof sheet profile was developed and several buildings in Dar es Salaam have been provided with sisal fibre reinforced concrete roofs. The use of sisal fibre as reinforcement in cement paste and concrete has been reported by Swift and Smith [10], [11]. Their results on the flexural static strength and toughness of beams made of cement based matrices reinforced indicated that extremely high strengths can be achieved using suitable mixing and casting techniques with optimum fibre volume fraction, although the modulus of rupture is found for different ages. They also found that impact resistance can be enhanced by the addition of sisal fibres. Several application of this material was suggested for low-cost housing and they produced corrugated sheets in different ways to optimize the processing technique. In general, a relatively low content fibre results in small positive influence on the concrete. A relatively high content of fibre, however, may have a difficulty in mixing and distribution of fibre [12]. II. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE A. Materials and Processing The necessity for reasonable, sustainable, harmless, and secure shelter is an inherent global problem and several challenges remain in order to produce environmentally friendly construction products which are structurally safe and durable. The use of sisal, a natural fibre with enhanced M. Aruna Mechanical Behaviour of Sisal Fibre Reinforced Cement Composites N World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Vol:8, No:4, 2014 650 International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 8(4) 2014 scholar.waset.org/1307-6892/9997869 International Science Index, Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Vol:8, No:4, 2014 waset.org/Publication/9997869