AN EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT CONCRETE MIX USING PARTICULATE PALM KERNEL SHELL

ABSTRACT

Palm kernel shell (PKS) is an agricultural waste and is quite environmental friendly. The use of palm kernel shell for concrete production tend to increase the strength and durability of concrete. Its use in concrete production will alleviate the increasing challenges of scarcity and high cost of cement. Thus this paper evaluates different concrete mix using particular palm kernel shell. A prescribed mix of 1:2:4 (Cement: sand: coarse/fine aggregate) by volume was used in making all 11 concrete samples. Some samples were made with gravel, stone dust, kalo kalo, coarse palm kernel shell, and fine palm kernel shell. Some were made with a combination of stone dust and coarse palm kernel shell, kalo kalo and coarse palm kernel shell, stone dust and fine palm kernel shell, gravel and coarse palm kernel shell, gravel and fine palm kernel shell, and kalo kalo and fine palm kernel shell. Compressive strength tests were carried out on the samples after 7 days of casting. The study analysis showed that gravel concrete is stronger than all other aggregates when it is partially replaced with palm kernel shell and gravel concrete that is partially replaced with fine palm kernel shell is stronger than gravel concrete that is partially replaced with coarse palm kernel shell. Also, the result shows that when using stone dust partially replace with coarse palm kernel shell, the concrete tends to have a higher compressive value than the normal stone dust concrete and stone dust partially replace with fine palm kernel shell.