Feasibility study of high volume slag as cement replacement for sustainable structural lightweight oil palm shell concrete

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThis paper presents a study on the use of high volume slag as a cement replacement material, and waste oil palm shell (OPS) as a lightweight aggregate to produce a sustainable lightweight concrete (LWC). In order to establish the feasibility of such concrete for structural purposes, the first part of the paper deals with the investigation of the mechanical and bond properties of OPS concrete (OPSC) with varying slag content. The results showed that even though an increase in the slag content led to the reduction in the strength, the OPSC with slag as a 60% cement replacement material exhibited compressive and splitting tensile strengths of 25 and 2.3 MPa, respectively, which exceeded the minimum stipulated strength required for structural LWC. In addition, the use of 60% slag in OPSC showed significant benefits in terms of the reduced cement consumption with improvement in the strength efficiency by almost 2-fold compared to that without slag. On the other hand, it was found that the slag content, albeit as high as a 60% cement replacement level, did not show any significant adverse effects on the normalized bond strength, failure mode, bond strength-slip curve and slip at the ultimate bond strength of the OPSC. To further justify the suitability of the OSPC for structural application, the second part of the paper focuses on the experimental investigation of the flexural behaviour of the actual full-scale reinforced concrete beams. From the flexural tests, it was observed that there were no negative effects on the ultimate moment capacity, failure mode and moment-deflection behaviour of the reinforced concrete beams upon cement replacement with up to 60% slag. Therefore, the utilization of high volume slag-lightweight OPSC could be recommended for actual structural purposes.

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

“…As previous investigations have dealt with the mechanical properties and structural performance (Mo et al, 2015a) of the GGBS-blended OPSC, this investigation focuses on the effect of GGBS on some durability properties of OPSC, such as sorption, strength and shrinkage properties, since all of these properties are related to the pore structure and subsequently durability of the concrete. The variables investigated in this research include the percentage of cement replacement by GGBS (0%, 20%, 40% and 60%).…”

Mechanical properties of oil palm shell lightweight aggregate concrete containing palm oil fuel ash as partial cement replacement

“…The practice of stockpiling it behind the mill and then leaving it to degrade naturally is seemed to be less sensible approach as it takes a long time to deteriorate. The continuous generation of oil palm shell, in turn increases the amount of oil palm shell dumped brings about pollution to the environment as well as contributing towards an unpleasant sight (Mo et al, 2015). Therefore, the abundant supply of Oil Palm Shell (OPS) suggests its feasibility as an alternative source for production of lightweight aggregate concrete locally.…”

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

“…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]. Further, the use of GGBS offers a higher environmental value since the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions for the production of GGBS are about five times lower compared to that of cement.…”