PRODUCING LIGHT WEIGHT CONCRETE BY PARTIALLY REPLACING COARSE AGGREGATE WITH PALM KERNEL SHELL
Abstract
Recent increase in concrete production cost due to high cost of transportation of coarse aggregateto regions where the material is relatively scarce is a major source of concern to professionals inthe building industry. Moreover, there are severe negative environmental impact associated withquarrying of limestone ranging from noise pollution, impaired air quality and emission of dustand particles into the atmosphere. The aforementioned problems have necessitated theexploration of environmentally friendly alternative for the production of concrete Uchechi, et al.,(2017).This study investigates the feasibility of producing lightweight concrete by partially replacingcoarse aggregate with palm kernel shell (PKS). The main objective was to determine the effect ofPKS on the mechanical and physical properties of concrete. The experiment involved mixingdifferent proportions of PKS(say 5-20%) with traditional coarse aggregates in concrete mixturesfor 1:2:4 mix ratio using 0.6 w/c ratio and testing the compressive strength, water absorption,workability and density of the resulting concrete also, to determine the proportion of palmkernel shell that can be found useful in the production of lightweight concrete. Fifteen cubes ofconcrete were casted for each percentage replacement including the control mix and tested for7, 21 and 28days curing ages. It was discovered that 5% replacement of coarse aggregate withpalm kernel shell gave the highest slump value apart from the control, while concrete mix with20% PKS gave lowest slump value, this was because palm kernel shell absorbs more water thangranite. Result from the experiment showed that the workability, density and the compressivestrength of concrete decreased on addition of palm kernel shell as compared to control cubes.
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