Abstract
Maize cob is an agricultural waste, which contain high percentage of silica. Due to this high silica content, an attempt had been made to produce maize cob cement (MCC) by mixing maize cob ash with lime slurry. The dried product was burnt at temperature of 12500C. Four categories of MCC were prepared by varying the lime slurry in the mixture. The fineness, setting time and soundness tests were carried out on the MCC while workability and strength tests were carried out on the maize cob concrete. For each category of MCC, three 100mm x 100mm concrete cubes were cast and tested for strength at 3, 7, 28, and 56 days hydration period respectively. All the four categories of MCC showed tendency for expansion but the one with least expansion was adopted. The optimum strength obtained was 22 N/mm2 at 28 days for the cement consisting of one part maize cob ash and one part lime and this could be used for structural works in construction where low strength is required.
Highlights
Nigeria is a developing country that relies on imported materials for her housing and other developments: one of such materials is cement
The maize cob ash and lime slurry were mixed together to obtain a uniform mixture by hand mixing
Those retained on 5mm sieve were excluded because they can be classified as either fine or coarse aggregate
Summary
Nigeria is a developing country that relies on imported materials for her housing and other developments: one of such materials is cement. Though produced locally much importation is made to meet the demands for construction industries. This requires hard currency and a drain on the nations resources. Chemical analysis of maize cob ash shows that the percentage of silica oxide present in it is 60% (see Table 1) compared to ordinary portland cement (OPC) with 25%. The maize cob is an agricultural waste which is often discarded after the grains had been removed Due to this high percentage of silica present in maize cob ash, this paper measure the strength of concrete that can be produced by using maize cob cement which is a combination of maize cob ash and factory produced lime as a total replacement of OPC in concrete works
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
