Structural Performance Evaluation of Landolphia buchananii Shear Reinforced Concrete Beams

This study aims to evaluate the performance of Landolphia buchananii shear reinforced concrete beams to establish the potential of Landolphia buchananii as a shear reinforcement of concrete beams. Tensile strength test on Landolphia buchananii was performed and reinforced concrete beam test was done. The performance of Landolphia buchananii shear reinforced concrete beam was compared to that of steel shear reinforced concrete beam. Varying size/area of shear reinforcement of Landolphia buchananii was used for beam specimen made of concrete of average compressive strength of 20.8 N/mm2. The results showed that the failure loads increased with increase in area/size of shear reinforcement. Tensile strength of Landolphia buchananii was found to be 65 percent lower than that of conventional mild steel. The study showed that Landolphia buchananii can be used as shear reinforcement in concrete beams and can be used as a substitute of steel under low loading regimes.