Potential of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) as a partially sand replacement on mortar performance

Abstract

Sand is a precious mineral that contribute development in construction industry in this world. As sand is a vital material especially in producing concrete, it is important to seek for other alternative material such as Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA), which can preserve the nature. POFA is palm oil residue, rich in silica and calcium like natural sand. It is found that POFA usage in mortar is limited. Therefore, this paper presents the performance of POFA as partial sand replacement. The POFA was added in the mortar mix at 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% by weight of sand. The performance of mortar was assessed in term workability and mechanical properties. For workability, flow test was performed while compressive strength test was carried out at 1, 3, 7 and 28 days on hardened mortar cubes to measure its mechanical properties. Workability of mortar containing 5% POFA replacement level were 438 mm, which was in the range of mortar's requirement. Meanwhile, the mortar compressive strength of 10% POFA by weight of sand increased the strength to 28 MPa at 28 days. From the result, POFA showed significant result to act as an alternative and sustainable material for construction industry.