Experimental Study on the Effects of Hair Fibre Waste in Concrete

Abstract

Increase in construction activities has resulted in consumption of basic ingredients of concrete. Also, there has been an enormous increase in the quantity of human hair waste generated especially from the religious cities. In low densely populated areas, hair waste is discarded in openly in nature where it takes many years to decompose eventually returning the constituent elements, namely, carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, causing the ecological imbalance. In high densely populated areas, it often accumulates in large amounts in the solid waste streams and chokes the drainage systems, posing a multifaceted problem. Due to slow degradation, it stays in the dumps/waste streams for long occupying large volumes of space. The disposal of hair waste is creating a severe problem in India. With stringent environment laws for disposal of different waste, many industries are looking for the effective use of their waste. This paper explores the possibilities of using human hair waste in concrete and making sustainable concrete. With an increase in our environmental consciousness, the use of human hair as a sustainable waste material for making concrete is gaining momentum recently. The present work explains the need for the use of human hair in making concrete and the effect of human hair on the properties of concrete. It is also aimed to recommend optimum percentage of human hair for getting maximum strength.
Keywords: Hair fibre, Sustainable concrete