Incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash Research Articles

Study on Mechanical Properties of Foamed Concrete Incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash and Mussel Shell as Partial Cement Replacement

Concept of sustainable construction has gradually become one of the concern issues in our construction industry in recent years. Concrete which acts as an important construction material has contributed to excessive consumption of natural resources. Simultaneously, tonnes of waste materials were produced from agricultural activity in form of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) while mussel shell from marine hatchery. Utilization of agricultural waste as cement replacement is an option to reduce the environmental impact from the construction industry. In this study, these waste materials were used as partial cement replacement to produce foamed concrete in wet density of 1800 kg/m3. The main purpose of this research is to study the workability and mechanical properties of foamed concrete which contain uniform 20% of POFA combined with 5% to 10% of mussel shell powder (MSP) and mussel shell ash (MSA) respectively. The cube specimens were cast in dimension 100 mm x 100 mm x100 mm to test the compressive strength at 7th and 28th. The cylinder specimens were cast in 100 mm diameter x 200 mm diameter for split tensile test to determine the tensile strength and compression test to determine modulus of elasticity at 28th day. The result showed workability of foamed concrete decreased as more cement was replaced by POFA combined with MSP and MSA. Foamed concrete mixture with 20% POFA and 5% MSP was selected as optimum percentage of cement replacement due to reduction less than 5% compromised performance in compressive strength at 16.52MPa while tensile strength at 1.83MPa.

The Role of POFA and Recycled Plastic in Enhancing Concrete Properties

The experimental work of waste utilization for Grade 30 concrete incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) and treated Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) being presented in this paper. POFA is an agricultural waste from palm oil industry that creates uncontrolled landfill disposal, contain high silica-alumina which act as a good pozzolanic material as binder similar to cement. 45 cube specimen size 100 × 100 × 100 mm were prepared with 2 mol, 4 mol, 6 mol and 8 mol of Sulphuric Acid to treat PET. The objectives were to evaluate the workability and performance of POFA and treated PET concrete through slump test and compression test at 7, 14 and 28 days. As the findings, treated PET with 8 mol Sulphuric Acid and 5% POFA concrete significantly improves consistency compared to the control specimen. This resulted from the liquidation technique applied to POFA during the concrete mixing process that functions as a liquid lubricant which can easily blend with cement component. Moreover, 5% POFA and 8 mol treated PET concrete shows strength increment due to the combination effect between raw POFA that act as filler and PET act as fiber reinforcement to help the concrete.

Thermal Performance Simulation of Eco-Friendly Lightweight Foamed Concrete Incorporating Palm Oil Fuel ash and Eggshell Powder Using ABAQUS

The need for thermal insulating building material due to increase in Urban Heat Island effect and the carbon footprint associated with concrete due to its binder, cement, has caused increase in utilization of waste by-products as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). Vast number of waste materials are available which could be potential substitutes of cement and help in developing eco-friendly concrete, however, conducting various tests on these would be costly and time-consuming. Therefore, computational simulation is a cost-effective and time-saving alternative for thorough time-consuming and expensive experimental studies. The aim of current work was to conduct the finite element simulation to assess the performance of eco-friendly lightweight foamed concrete incorporating two such waste products, Eggshell Powder (ESP) and Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) being subject to thermal stress, heat transfer and parametric analysis and comparing the simulated results with data obtained from experimental work. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the surface temperature of the eco-friendly lightweight concrete panels decreased as the thickness of the panels increased. The finite element model by using ABAQUS software was validated with experimental results, and it was determined that the simulated results were within an acceptable range of 10% which could reduce to 2% if all panels with a set thickness of 50 mm. Therefore, computational model could help predict thermal stresses and heat transfer and provide fast-track thermal performance analysis of eco-friendly lightweight concrete incorporating various waste materials.

Preliminary Investigation of Thermal Behavior of Lightweight Foamed Concrete Incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash and Eggshell Powder

This study was performed to investigate the thermal and mechanical properties of foamed concrete when supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) are utilized. Sustainable foamed concrete of 1800 kg/m3 dry density was prepared by incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) ranging from 30 % to 35 % and Eggshell Powder (ESP) from 5 % to 15 % as SCMs. It was found that the combined utilization of POFA and ESP in the foamed concrete produced favorable results by reducing the thermal conductivity up to 42.68 % compared to the control sample, thus enhanced thermal insulating property of foamed concrete. This study confirmed that recycling and reusing of POFA and ESP are possible in foamed concrete which could be used for non-structural applications where thermal insulating is required.

Performance of Aggregate Incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash (Pofa) and Silt

Depletion of natural aggregate has created more research to explore the utilization of industrial waste as alternative aggregate in concrete construction. The use of industrial wastes in making of artificial aggregate will lead to greener environment. In this study an attempt has been made to find the suitability of waste materials of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) and water treatment sludge as possible substitute for natural coarse aggregate. Specific gravity, water absorption, crushing strength and impact value have been tested for this mixture. Both raw materials were mixed with lime and alkaline activator. The artificial aggregate was air-cured at non-sintered temperature. Results show that the different mix proportions of the POFA to silt affected the performance of the artificial aggregate. Specific gravity and water absorption increased with the proportion of silt. Lightweight aggregate comprising silt combined with POFA and alkaline activator has the potential to produce a good performance of concrete. These benefits contribute to the production of energy-efficient building materials.

Chemical and Fresh State Properties of Foamed Concrete Incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash and Eggshell Ash as Cement Replacement

Malaysia faces three major environmental problems, out of which solid waste and management is one of them. Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) and eggshells are two agro-food waste materials which are produced in enormous quantities in Malaysia. Due to the characteristics possessed by eggshells and POFA, these waste materials can potentially be utilized in the production as cement replacement, reducing the use of cement which is one of the major production of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) gas emissions. This study was conducted to determine the chemical and fresh state properties of foamed concrete incorporating POFA and eggshell ash (ESA) as cement replacement. Based upon the results, it was observed that the increase in usage amount of POFA and ESA as cement replacement, the workability of foamed concrete reduced without blocking. For the chemical analysis result shows the POFA which had high amount of silicon dioxide and ESA having large amount of calcium oxide were compatible and could be used together as cement replacement. The use of ESA and POFA as cement replacement to reduce the cement consumption with various percentage of ESA (0% - 15%) and POFA (20% - 35%) in 1800 kg/m3 density of foamed concrete.

Mortars and Concrete Incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash and Fly Ash

Number of researchers reported that Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) and Fly Ash (FA) can be used as supplementary cementing material (SCM) in concrete. Both materials have their own significant effects on the properties of concrete and have been accepted by using them for the improvement of workability and strength of concrete. However, studies showed that FA has better pozzolanic properties than POFA. Hence, properties of mortars blended with POFA (untreated and treated) as binary blend (CUP and CTP) and ternary blend that combined with FA (CUPF and CTPF) as cement replacement were investigated. Unground POFA has been used in this study. CUPF and CTPF resulted in significant improvement in the pozzolanic activity compared to CUP and CTP of mortar mix. Pozzolanic activity of ternary blend mortar achieved the specified pozzolanic activity index of 75% based on ASTM C618. Compressive strength of the C80P15F5 concrete with 15% of treated POFA + 5% of FA by weight of binder showed a slightly higher result compared to the control mix. It is suggested that the combination of POFA and FA as pozzolanic material will improves the mechanical properties of mortars and concrete.

Sustainable Pervious Concrete Incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash as Cement Replacement

Pervious concrete is one of the best materials used in sustainable drainage system to control the stormwater at source. The use of waste materials in concrete is able to reduce the negative impacts of concrete towards the environment. Therefore, this study presents the development of a sustainable pervious concrete by partially replacing cement with palm oil fuel ash (POFA) from palm oil industry. Properties, including void content, compressive and tensile strength as well as permeability were discussed. The results indicated that it is possible to produce sustainable pervious concrete by incorporating POFA. Furthermore, pervious concrete containing POFA showed higher water permeability and void content but lower compressive and tensile strength than control pervious concrete. However, the obtained compressive and tensile strength were within the acceptable range which is reported for strengths of pervious concrete.

Modeling of Compressive Strength for Self-Consolidating High-Strength Concrete Incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash.

Modeling is a very useful method for the performance prediction of concrete. Most of the models available in literature are related to the compressive strength because it is a major mechanical property used in concrete design. Many attempts were taken to develop suitable mathematical models for the prediction of compressive strength of different concretes, but not for self-consolidating high-strength concrete (SCHSC) containing palm oil fuel ash (POFA). The present study has used artificial neural networks (ANN) to predict the compressive strength of SCHSC incorporating POFA. The ANN model has been developed and validated in this research using the mix proportioning and experimental strength data of 20 different SCHSC mixes. Seventy percent (70%) of the data were used to carry out the training of the ANN model. The remaining 30% of the data were used for testing the model. The training of the ANN model was stopped when the root mean square error (RMSE) and the percentage of good patterns was 0.001 and ≈100%, respectively. The predicted compressive strength values obtained from the trained ANN model were much closer to the experimental values of compressive strength. The coefficient of determination (R2) for the relationship between the predicted and experimental compressive strengths was 0.9486, which shows the higher degree of accuracy of the network pattern. Furthermore, the predicted compressive strength was found very close to the experimental compressive strength during the testing process of the ANN model. The absolute and percentage relative errors in the testing process were significantly low with a mean value of 1.74 MPa and 3.13%, respectively, which indicated that the compressive strength of SCHSC including POFA can be efficiently predicted by the ANN.

Modification of Grout Properties in Prepacked Aggregate Concrete Incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash

Prepacked aggregate concrete (PAC) is a type of concrete that is placed in two stages where the coarse aggregates are first placed inside the formworks and then the grout is pumped from underneath through a manual pump. Grout properties including density, grout consistency, bleeding, and compressive strength are of great importance in PAC. Such properties could be improved by application of pozzolanic materials like palm oil fuel ash. This paper is aimed at finding the most optimum percentage of POFA replacement by weight of cement. It was concluded that 30% POFA replacement yielded the most optimum results.

Non-destructive Evaluation of Self-consolidating High-strength Concrete Incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash

Non-destructive Evaluation of Self-consolidating High-strength Concrete Incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash

Performance of masonry blocks incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash

This paper presents an experimental study on the development of masonry block with Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) as a partial replacement to cement whilst maintaining satisfactory properties of masonry block. The dosages of POFA are limited to 0%, 20%, 40% and 60% by mass of the total cementitious material in the masonry block. The experiments on masonry block investigate the compressive strength and the breaking load for mechanical properties and water absorption and efflorescence for its durability. The compressive strength and the breaking load of the masonry blocks reduce with increasing percentage of POFA replacement. However, it satisfies the requirements of Class 1 and Class 2 load-bearing masonry block according to Malaysian Standard MS76:1972. In terms of durability of the masonry block, water absorption for all the masonry blocks satisfies the requirement of ASTM C55-11 and there is no any sign of efflorescence on all the masonry blocks. POFA based masonry block are also found to be cheaper than the cement sand masonry blocks. The experimental studies indicate that POFA based masonry block has a significant potential for application in the construction industry.