Mechanical Properties of Bamboo Fibre Composite Incorporating Pulverized Fuel Ash Maisarah Ali 1, a , Siti Asmahani Saad 2, b , Noor Farah Elyani Khairuddin 1, c , Ammar Hamzi Sidek 1, d and Muhammad Faiz Md. Salim 1, e 1 Manufacturing and Material Engineering Department, International Islamic University Malaysia, P.O. Box 10, 50728, Kuala Lumpur 2 Civil Engineering Department, University of Technology Petronas, Bandar Seri Iskandar, 31750, Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia a maisarah@iium.edu.my, b asmahani.saad@gmail.com, c fara.khairuddin@gmail.com, d ammar.hamzi5014@gmail.com, e m.faizsalim89@gmail.com Keywords: Fibre reinforced concrete board; natural fibre; bamboo fibre; pulverized fuel ash; compressive strength; flexural strength. Abstract. This study reports the findings of an experimental investigation for bamboo fibre (BF) reinforced concrete board. In this research, all specimens were prepared at 0.4 water/binder ratio. There were two series of specimens namely A series and B series. The A group utilizes only ordinary portland cement (OPC) as binder. Meanwhile, series B specimens uses binary binders, which were combination of OPC and pulverized fuel ash (PFA) with PFA to OPC ratio of 0.2. The performance of flat board plates with different percentage of bamboo fiber ranging from 0% to 5% and 20% PFA incorporation of cement weight were tested for bending strength (flexural) and compressive strength in accordance to BS 5669: Part 1 for particleboards. Specimens are cured in water curing tank and tested at 3, 7 and 28 days for compression test. Meanwhile for flexural strength test, the specimens are tested at 28 days. It is found that flexural and compressive strength increases with addition of BF. The optimum compressive and flexural strength at 28 days are recorded with 3% incorporation of BF for both PFA and control samples. Therefore, utilizing natural fibre and waste material for partial substitution of cement content in producing internal wall paneling system could contributes to the economic appeal and promoting sustainable construction approach. Introduction In current construction activity, most of the existing internal wall partition system for residential building is made of clay bricks and cement sand bricks. This conventional wall system partition is readily available and cheap to construct with recognized disadvantages of heavy loading, low productivity, high wastage and requiring skill labor to install. In order to overcome this issue, panelized wall system has been introduced into the market. This system is widely used in most of advanced countries namely Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Japan. In these countries, utilizing of these types of pre-cast housing material is highly recommended by their respective construction authority. The main reasons for the popularity of these dry wall systems are higher productivity, site cleanliness, and improve wall finishes strength. [1]. Bamboo, known as natural vegetation, able to grow in various soils, fast growing, abundance and has desirable properties. The optimum age of bamboo to harvest for structural application used is between 2.5 and 4 years. The strength decreases at later age [2]. Incorporation of bamboo has been investigated by Ghavami (1999). It is recorded that the ultimate load of a concrete beam reinforced with bamboo increased 400% as compared to un-reinforced concrete [3]. Advanced Materials Research Vol 1115 (2015) pp 270-274 Submitted: 2015-01-09 © (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland Accepted: 2015-03-26 doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.1115.270 All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of Trans Tech Publications, www.ttp.net. (ID: 210.48.222.8-20/05/15,11:09:17)