Experimental Assessment of Properties of Earth Soil Used in Concrete Production

Abstract

Soil as an aggregate material is one of the major ingredients for concrete production. One of the soils used as a fine aggregate material for general construction most especially concrete production is the earth soil without resorting to its properties and mechanical analysis. It is based on this that the study assessed the physical properties of the earth soil and mechanical properties of concrete produced through it. In assessing the physical properties’ quality of the earth soil sampled analysis such as grain size distribution, percentage of silt content, water absorption, loose and rodding bulk density, specific gravity, and percentage of void were carried out. Also, mechanical properties of concrete produced with the earth soil were carried out using the compressive strength testing machine. The finding of the study showed that the result of the property analyses carried out on the earth soil does not meet the expected result as stipulated in ASTM C29 / C29M-17a. Also, the result of the mechanical properties of the concrete produced showed that the strength of the concrete decrease as the age of the concrete progresses from 11.23% (7 days), 6.87% (14 days) to 13.12% (28 days). The study suggested that the earth soil is not a standalone aggregate material suitable for construction work most especially concrete production. The study concluded that to boost the property quality of the earth soil, a certain percentage of the aggregate should be stabilized using a well graded fine aggregate material such as river sand in order to boost it suitability for general construction work most especially concrete production.