Abstract
This article describes a study on the use of a new biocomposite for the construction material made of plaster and fibres extracted from palm Washingtonia filifera (WF), also known under the name palm desert or California. The main objective is to investigate the influence of the treatment of WF fibres with NaHCO3 on the mechanical properties of the resulting biocomposite. Several plaster/WF fibre composites are prepared with 2% of untreated WF fibres and treated for different treatment times (24, 72, 168 and 240 h) according to different NaHCO3 concentrations (5, 10 and 20%). The mechanical properties in tensile and 3-point bending are studied respectively for untreated (WF) fibres and elaborated gypsum/fibre (WF) composites. The results obtained show that the incorporation of WF fibres into the plaster matrix improves the mechanical performance of this new biocomposite and its ductility. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is used to statistically study the experimental results. Response models generated by ANOVA, indicate that the rate of NaHCO3 significantly influences the ultimate strength and flexural modulus. The optimization study showed that the ideal rate of NaHCO3 is 20%, while the optimum treatment time is 168 h, which is in agreement with the experimental results.