Influence of palm oil clinker powder on the fresh and mechanical properties of masonry mortars

Abstract

Masonry and rendering mortars are is well known oldest techniques in the building. A common idea is to use strong material as possible, and as a result mortars are often rich in cement. Not only this is unnecessary expensive, it has also technical disadvantages and harmful to environment. Hence, in this study focuses on utilisation of palm oil mills waste, namely palm oil clinker powder (POCP) and POCP influences on the fresh and mechanical properties of masonry mortars are analysed and comparison between cement – lime (CLM) and masonry cement mortar (MCM) are addressed. The masonry mortars were prepared using cement – lime and masonry cement as control masonry mortars christened as type ‘S’ mortar. The POCP used as cement replacement material in the masonry mortar mixture from 0-80% by volume in the preliminary study and ideal replacement of 40% was used in the final mixture of mortar for comparison. All specimens were cured in water and air curing regimes for 7, 28 and 56 days and the physical and mechanical properties were analysed. The results show that as replacement of cement with POCP increases, there is a reduction in fresh density with subsequent increase in air content. Further, the use of masonry cement with POCP (MCP) shows highly workable mix even at lower w/cm ratio compared to cement-lime mortar with POCP (CLP). Moreover, CLM, CLP obtained higher strength (28 & 20 MPa) than MCM and MCP (24 MPa & 11 MPa). on the contrary, the cement-lime mortar with POCP shows higher compressive strength compared to masonry mortar prepared with masonry cement-POCP.