SUITABILITY OF PERIWINKLE SHELL MIXED WITH PALM KERNEL SHELL AS REPLACEMENT FOR COARSE AGGREGATE REPLACEMENT IN CONCRETE PRODUCTION

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the suitability of Palm Kernel Shell (PKS) mixed with Periwinkle Shell (PWS) as full replacement for coarse aggregate in concrete production. Since aggregates make up over 65% of the volume and mass of concrete, replacing these large quantities traditional and expensive coarse aggregates with cheap and abundant PKS and PWS would have significant impact on the environment and cost of concrete production. Slump test, Aggregate impact value (AIV) test and compression test were carried for various mixtures of PWS and PKS. Compressive test and the AIV test results were compared with concrete made with 100% coarse aggregates -granite in this case. A design nominal mix of 1: 1.2: 2.6 was used in this study and a total of 72 concrete cubes were cast. Results show that replacing coarse aggregates with a mixture 75%PWS and 25%PKS (75%PWS/25% PKS) performed better than other PKS and PWS mixtures when used as full replacement for coarse aggregates. It is observed that strengths of concrete produced with this mixture of PWS and PKS are half of those produced with concrete made of coarse aggregate. However, the use of potential waste products and the elimination expensive granite (coarse aggregates) in concrete production offers some economic and environmental benefits. The impact of PWS and PKS on shrinkage, thermal cracking and other elastic properties of concrete were not investigated in this work but will form the basis of future studies