The effect of different treatments on abaca fibers used in cementitious composites

The use of natural fibers including abaca has increased because its advantages such as lightweight, low price, life-cycle superiority, and substitute for synthetic fibers. This paper gives an insight into the effect three different treatments on fibers: hornification, NaOH 3% concentration solution, a coating silica fume with latex cementitious composites; have been characterized before after through SEM, XRD, FT-IR, TGA, tensile tests to analyze structural chemical changes. Cementitious composites setting time flexural strength (7, 14, 28 days) were analyzed determining optimum treatment and, afterward, best dosage length. It was found that HS 30 mm 0.2% showed 8.2 MPa in terms strength.