ASSESSMENT OF THE SPLIT TENSILE STRENGTH OF THE MAJOR BRANDS OF CEMENT IN ENUGU URBAN MARKETS

Abstract

In Nigerian construction industry, the most commonly used cementitious material is the Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). Of recent there has been controversy as to whether the brands of OPC used in the country can attain adequate strength. Contractors generally choose any brand of cement for use based on their own personal and previous experiences from past works but since construction works are different, it is necessary to make a clear finding on which brands should be preferably used for given projects. This cannot be done successfully without carrying out as many laboratory tests as possible to establish a scientific position for each brand based on research. The aggregates and other ingredients of the concrete were initially characterized to determine the properties. The split tensile strength of concrete cylinders produced with the various brands of Portland cements showed that BUA cement had the highest values of split tensile strength for all the ages of curing, followed closely by the Dangote cement while the Unicem cement had the least values of although, the difference in values of concretes produced with the various brand of cement is small. The polynomial function-based model developed adequately predicted the experimental observed split tensile strength with high accuracy.

KEYWORDS: Cement, split tensile strength, brands, model, assessment