Jute fiber mortar composites for integrated retrofitting

Both existing and new buildings affect, either directly or indirectly, our environment and eco-systems, mainly due to their contribution to the climate change. Particularly they are responsible for greenhouse gas emission, during the whole life cycle of the building. The use of sustainable materials in the construction sector could help in slowing down and minimize the environmental damages done during these years. Therefore, the use of natural fibers or composite materials as building products could help in restoring the balance with the nature, and also it would encourage the United Nation (UN)’s sustainable development goals. This experimental work contributes towards exploring sustainable integrated retrofitting solutions based on jute fiber reinforced mortar, i.e., to obtain an optimum balance between the mechanical behavior and the thermal property of the composite system studied. To achieve this, raw jute fiber of various percentage (0.5%, 1%, 15% and 2%) and lengths (5mm, 10mm and 30mm) were used as reinforcing agent for composite mortar. With the gradual introduction of fiber and increase in fiber percentages, the mechanical performances (compression strength and flexural strength) worsen, whereas the insulating capacity improved almost lineally, when compared with the normal samples without fiber. The presence of longer fibers in the sample have shown better gripping capacity and higher stain energy capacity, i.e., the presence of jute fiber, improved the energy absorption capacity of the composite specimens. Whereas just contrary in the case insulation capacity, the 5mm fiber have lower thermal conductivity value in comparison with 10mm and 30mm fibers.