Hempwerks : non-corroding concrete reinforcing made with natural fiber and thermoplastics
Authors
Cohen, Daniel
Issue Date
2021-08
Type
Electronic thesis
Thesis
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Architecture
Alternative Title
Abstract
Infrastructure has been deteriorating for decades and climate change and urbanization are acceleratingtheir degradation. Much of our infrastructure is built with reinforced concrete, whose steel
reinforcement can become a liability if allowed to corrode. This thesis explores the development of a
non-corroding reinforcing alternative made from natural fibers and thermoplastic. The impact of
natural fiber composite (NFC) reinforced concrete has been investigated at multiple scales of
performance: structural, processing, and environmental. Structural and environmental performance has
been calculated based upon material database values, while processing performance has been observed
though the production of multiple NFC samples. The structural performance calculations reveal that
flax reinforced composites can match the tensile strength of steel with a fiber volume ratio between
44% and 50% and match the elastic modulus of GFRP with a fiber volume ratio between 46% and
49%. The processing performance experiments reveal the “jacket” commingling method results in
better fiber saturation than the “parallel” or “twisted” methods. The environmental performance results
reveal that given a constant fiber volume ratio, PLA matrix composites demand only 50%-51% the
embodied energy of GFRP, regardless of the selected natural fiber reinforcing.
Description
August 2021
School of Architecture
School of Architecture
Full Citation
Publisher
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY