The Effect of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) on the Mix Proportion of Oil Palm Shell (OPS) Concrete

Abstract

Oil palm shell (OPS) is a renewable resource obtained from agricultural solid waste after the extraction of palm oil. It has been previously reported that OPS can be used as a coarse aggregate substitute in the manufacture of structural lightweight concrete. Since OPS is an organic material, its properties may degrade after a certain period of time unless pre-treatment is applied on the aggregates. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) can be used to treat the OPS before being incorporated as coarse aggregates in concrete. It has been determined that the use of PVA as pre-treatment enables an improvement to the properties of raw OPS aggregates and consequently the resulting concrete. In this research work, the effect of PVA as pre-treatment on OPS aggregates on the mix proportion of OPS concrete was investigated. The results show that there was an increase in the slump values of the OPS concrete made with PVA treated OPS aggregates. The 28-day air-dry density and compressive strength of PVA treated OPS concrete slightly increased as compared to raw OPS concrete.