# Agricultural Residues of Lignocellulosic Materials in Cement Composites
## 3 Results and Discussion
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Before Accelerated Ageing**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**After Accelerated Ageing**} \\ \hline  & **CS** & **IB** & **MOR (MPa)** & **MOE** & **MOR (MPa)** & **MOE** \\  & **(MPa)** & **(MPa)** & **(MPa)** & **(MPa)** & **(MPa)** \\ \hline Eucalyptus & 9.33 b & 0.54 c & 6.43 bA & 1462 a\(\alpha\) & 5.60 bA & 1090 b\(\alpha\) \\  & (1.24) & (0.06) & (0.25) & (353) & (0.96) & (111) \\ \hline Sugar cane & 2.81 a & 0.32 bc & 12.29 cA & 2070 a\(\alpha\) & 5.56 bB & 970 b\(\beta\) \\  & (0.80) & (0.15) & (0.25) & (371) & (1.60) & (159) \\ \hline Banana & 0.98 a & 0.07 a & 1.60 aA & 1528 a\(\alpha\) & 1.16 aA & 117 a\(\beta\) \\ pseudostem & (0.23) & (0.01) & (0.87) & (345) & (0.36) & (41) \\ \hline Coconut & 1.55 a & 0.30 abc & 3.47 aA & 3105 a\(\alpha\) & 1.77 aA & 182 a\(\beta\) \\ shell & (0.06) & (0.11) & (0.93) & (646) & (0.94) & (101) \\ \hline Coffee husk & 2.23 a & 0.23 ab & 3.78 abA & 1572 a\(\alpha\) & 0.28 aA & 53 a\(\beta\) \\  & (0.69) & (0.05) & (1.88) & (469) & (0.16) & (9) \\ \hline \(p\) value & 0.000 & 0.0011 & 0.000 & 0.3155 & 0.0001 & 0.0000 \\ \hline CV (\%) & 21.79 & 30.87 & 18.58 & 49.51 & 33.08 & 20.60 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Averages followed by the same letter (lowercase for lignocellulosic materials in the columns, uppercase for MOR before or after accelerated ageing tests in the lines, and Greek letters for MOE) presented statistical equivalence according to the Tukey test at 5% significance. The values in parentheses are standard deviations. CV: coefficient of variation.  
\end{table} 
Table 4: Compression strength (CS), internal bonding (IB), modulus of rupture (MOR), and modulus of elasticity (MOE) of the lignocellulosic composites before and after the accelerated ageing process. property. However, after accelerated ageing, no statistical difference was observed between the cane bagasse and eucalyptus panels for MOR. Sugarcane bagasse panels were the only panels showing a significant reduction in resistance values after accelerated ageing. This result was a consequence of the dimensional movement of the panels due to the greater volume of sugarcane bagasse particles present, because the lower density of the material (Table 2) promoted swelling of the panel (Table 3) and separation of the particles and matrix, and consequently, an increase in empty spaces. The MOE before ageing showed no statistical difference between treatments. However, significant reductions in the values of MOE were observed after the accelerated ageing of the cane bagasse, coconut shell, and coffee shell panels. After accelerated ageing, eucalyptus and sugarcane bagasse showed the highest average MOE values, a notable result suggesting that it is the most appropriate material, in terms of mechanical properties, for the production of cement-based panels. The values of the mechanical properties of cement-based panels decreased as a result of exposure of the samples to varying water content under extreme temperature conditions. Prolonged soaking in water may decrease the fibre-matrix interface and fibre resistance, owing to the alkaline degradation of lignocellulosic materials [51; 52], and increase the porosity of composites [46; 53]. Furthermore, based on the analysis of MOR and MOE tests carried out before and after the accelerated ageing process (Table 4), it is possible to evaluate the durability of the composites. The test showed a decrease in strength and stiffness of 12 to 92% and 25 to 96%, respectively, dependent on the lignocellulosic material. Based on these results, panels with Eucalyptus obtained the greatest durability and panels with coffee husk presented the worst durability. The Bison Wood-Cement Board [40] has determined a minimum value of 9 MPa for MOR and 3000 MPa for MOE. Thus, only the sugarcane bagasse panels met the MOR criteria, and only the coconut shell panels met the MOE criteria, even before the accelerated ageing process.