Abstract
In this paper, the effect of different curing methods on the strength of concrete with palm oil fuel ash as a cement replacement is investigated. An experimental program was carried out to study the effect of five different curing methods, i.e., water curing (WC), air curing (AC), plastic-wrapped curing (PC), oven and water curing (OWC), and oven and air curing (OAC), on the compressive and flexural strengths of palm oil fuel ash concrete (POFA20), where 20% of the cement was replaced by palm oil fuel ash. The results obtained from this investigation showed that POFA20-WC has the highest compressive and flexural strength, whilst POFA20-AC has the lowest at the age of 28 days. Both of the POFA20-OWC and POFA20-OAC have the highest compressive and flexural strength at the age of 3 days. The results emphasize the positive effect of oven curing procedure to achieve high compressive and flexural strength at early stage. However, the rate of hydration started to decrease at later stages, which leads to much lower rate of gaining strength in POFA20-OWC and POFA20-OAC. Water curing method is thus recommended in the construction industry except for extraordinary requirements and/or circumstances.
Highlights
In recent years, a series of investigations have been carried out on the use of agrowaste ashes as a partial replacement for cement in concrete and palm oil fuel ash is one of them, see, e.g., references [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12], not to mention many others
The main objective of this pap0er is to study the effect of different curing methods on the compressi0ve and flexural st5rengths of palm10 oil fuel ash concrete
The curing methods used in this study are water curing, air curing, plastic-wrapped curing, oven with water curing and oven with air curing
Summary
A series of investigations have been carried out on the use of agrowaste ashes as a partial replacement for cement in concrete and palm oil fuel ash is one of them, see, e.g., references [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12], not to mention many others. It was found that with high degree of fineness of palm oil fuel ash, concrete could reach the compressive strength of a normal concrete. This could be achieved by grounding and sieving the ash to the median particle size below 15.9μm. The increase in strength is due to the extended hydration This happens because Calcium-Silica-Hydrate, C-S-H gel, which is the most important binding phase in concrete, is formed quicker than in conventional water curing or air curing methods due to the presence of excessive humidity and temperature. This study attempts to breach this research gap by investigating the effect of different curing methods on the compressive and flexural strengths of concrete with palm oil fuel ash as a cement replacement
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