Effect of Replacement of Oil-palm-boiler Clinker with Oil Palm Shell on the Properties of Concrete

摘要

The use of structural lightweight aggregate concrete in structures has several benefits over normal weight concrete, particularly in multi-story buildings. The best way to produce structural lightweight concrete is by using lightweight aggregates. The use of artificial aggregates was minimized because of the high production costs due to huge consumption of energy and raw materials. Therefore, the best alternative to mitigate the negative impact in the construction industry is the use of by-product and waste materials. Oil-palm-boiler clinker (OPBC) and oil palm shell (OPS) are two waste materials from oil palm industry and available in large quantities. Both of these materials are considered as lightweight aggregate. However, OPBC is heavier than OPS. Therefore, concrete containing OPBC as coarse aggregate is considered as semi-lightweight concrete. This paper investigates the effect of the replacement of OPBC by OPS on the compressive strength, density and efficiency factor of concrete. Two mix proportions were prepared; the first concrete mix contain just OPBC as coarse aggregate. However, in second mixture, the OPBC was replaced by 20% OPS by the volume. The test results revealed that low volume substitution of OPBC with OPS can transform the semi-lightweight concrete to lightweight concrete with 28-day compressive strength of about 52 MPa.