Characterization of lightweight concrete made of palm oil clinker aggregates

¹ Postgraduate Student, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Malaysia
² Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author: mznazreen@gmail.com

Abstract

Lightweight concrete (LWC) has been identified as an innovative technique for construction purposes. Lightweight concrete can be categorized into three different types which are no-fine aggregate concrete, lightweight aggregate concrete and aerated concrete. This paper studied the characteristic of the lightweight concrete in term of mechanical properties utilizing the palm oil clinker (POC) as lightweight aggregates. Two mixes of lightweight concrete were developed, namely as POCC100 and POCC50 where each mix utilized 100% and 50% of total replacement to fine and coarse aggregates, respectively. The fresh and hardened POC concrete was tested and compared to the normal concrete (NC). The hardened state of the concrete was investigated through density test, ultrasonic pulse velocity, cube compressive, splitting tensile, flexural, modulus of elasticity and Poisson's ratio. From density test results, POC falls into the category of lightweight concrete with a density of 1990.33 kg/m³, which are below than normal weight concrete density. The mechanical properties test results on POCC100 and POCC50 showed that the concrete compressive strength was comparable about 85.70% and 96% compared to NC specimen, respectively. For the flexural strength, POCC50 and POCC100 were comparable about 98% and 97% to NC specimen, respectively. While splitting tensile strength of POCC50 and POCC100 was only 0.6% and 4% lower than NC specimen, respectively. In terms of sustainability of solid waste management, the application of the POC in construction will reduce the redundant of by-products resulted from the palm oil industries. After undergoing various testing of concrete mechanical properties, it can be concluded that POC aggregates was compatible to be used in ligtweight concrete mix proportion.