Enhancement of the mechanical properties of lightweight oil palm shell concrete using rice husk ash and manufactured sand

Abstract

Abstract:This study explores the use of rice husk ash (RHA) and manufactured sand (M-sand) as replacements for cement and fine aggregate, respectively, in lightweight oil palm shell concrete (OPSC). In the first stage of this study, the effect of various cement replacement levels, with RHA (5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) and 100% sand replacement with M-sand and quarry dust (QD), on the compressive strength of OPSC was investigated. The results showed that the highest compressive strength of OPSC of about 51.49 MPa was achieved with the use of 15% RHA and M-sand. In the second stage of the work, the variables of RHA (0 and 15%) and M-sand (0, 50%, and 100%) were used to investigate their combined effects on the mechanical properties of OPSC. It was found that the combination of 15% RHA and 100% M-sand gave the best performance of OPSC in terms of mechanical properties, such as compressive, splitting tensile, flexural strength, and Young's modulus.

Contribution of acrylic fibre addition and ground granulated blast furnace slag on the properties of lightweight concrete

“…The relative strength of OPSC upon 1 h exposure at temperatures of 100°C, 200°C and 400°C was found to be in the range of 70-94%, 42-77% and 25-47%, respectively, depending on the amount of GGBS and the acrylic fibre volume fractions. Nevertheless, these ranges of values were comparable to that reported by Gunasekaran et al [29] for coconut shell concrete.…”

“…However, as shown in Fig. 9, when the temperature was increased to 200°C and 400°C, the colour of the OPSC specimens turned to whitish grey and light brown, respectively, which was found to be similar to the observation by Gunasekaran et al [29] using coconut shell as aggregate. On the other hand, the amount of cement replacement with GGBS and volume fraction of acrylic fibres was not found to affect the colour changes of OPSC at elevated temperatures.…”

“…LWC is known to have superior fire resistance performance compared to NWC due to its lower thermal expansion coefficient [1]. However, similar to coconut shell aggregate, OPS aggregate contains organic matter and its disadvantage of being combustible has to be investigated by subjecting the specimens to elevated temperatures to study the residual strength [29]. Thus, the residual strength of OPSC upon heat exposure was investigated in order to serve as a preliminary study to provide a general idea on the behaviour of OPSC subjected to heat exposure.…”

“…The emission of a large amount of greenhouse gases that could detrimentally affect the environment is commonly associated with the use of cement. Hence, the use of supplementary cementitious materials, such as fly ash [27], ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) [28] and rice husk ash [29] in OPSC, has previously been investigated. In fact, the use of high volume GGBS up to 60% could still produce structural grade lightweight OPSC with a compressive strength exceeding 25 MPa [30].…”

Assessing some durability properties of sustainable lightweight oil palm shell concrete incorporating slag and manufactured sand

“…M-sand is readily available and its quality controlled process would enable it to be used as a replacement for conventional sand. Recent research shows that the use of M-sand as a complete replacement of natural sand was possible without any significant detrimental effect on the compressive strength of concrete (Nanthagopalan and Santhanam, 2011;Foong et al, 2015).…”