Oil Palm Shell Lightweight Concrete Research Articles

Durability Performance of Oil Palm Shell Lightweight Concrete as Insulation Concrete

This paper presents a solid agricultural solid waste, namely oil palm shell (OPS) as coarse aggregate to produce insulation concrete. This study will investigate the porosity, air permeability and thermal conductivity of OPS lightweight concrete (OPSLC). Nine mix designs were developed which comprised three OPS shapes and three volume fractions of OPS. The results indicated that increased volume fraction of OPS caused decreased durability performance and thermal conductivity. The shape of OPS is found to have significant effects to the porosity content and air permeability values. Thus, there is a strong relationship between porosity content and air permeability for all specimens. Based on the results, all specimens are found to be in the range of insulation concrete category except for specimen C-30, which has more than 0.75W/mK thermal conductivity according to RILEM requirement. The thermal conductivity of OPSLC is comparable with artificial lightweight aggregate.

Effects of polypropylene twisted bundle fibers on the mechanical properties of high-strength oil palm shell lightweight concrete

In this study, the effects of a new type of non-metallic fiber (polypropylene twisted bundle (PPTB)) on the slump and mechanical properties of oil palm shell (OPS) concrete have been investigated. The results showed that increasing the volume fraction of PPTB fibers, it slightly decreases the workability and density of the concrete. It has found that the compressive strength of OPS concrete increases with increasing PPTB fiber volume fraction. The results revealed that the reinforcement of OPS concrete with steel and PPTB fibers reduces the strength loss of OPS concrete in poor curing environments. In addition, the fiber with low volume fraction (up to 0.25 %) is more efficient in improving the flexural strength of OPS concrete compared to its splitting tensile strength. The average modulus of elasticity (E value) is obtained to be 17.4 GPa for all mixes, which is higher than the values reported in previous studies and is within the range for normal weight concrete. The performance of the PPTB fibers is comparable to that for steel fibers at a volume fraction (V f) of 0.5 %, which provides less dead load for lightweight concrete. The findings of this study showed that the PPTB fibers can be used as an alternative material to enhance the properties of OPS concrete. Hence, PPTB fibers are a promising alternative for lightweight concrete applications.

Torsional and cracking characteristics of steel fiber-reinforced oil palm shell lightweight concrete

The study presents the investigations of the torsional behavior and crack resistance of a sustainable lightweight oil palm shell (OPS) concrete. In the comparison between the OPS concrete (OPSC) and normal weight concrete (NWC), the torsional failure of the NWC was sudden and brittle, while the OPSC exhibited post-cracking behavior. The second part of the study examines the effect of steel fibers of 0.25–1.00% in the OPSC to produce OPS fiber-reinforced concrete (OPSFRC). Improved mechanical properties and reduced brittleness were reported in the OPSFRC mixes. The addition of 1% steel fibers in the OPSC-100 mix produced the highest compressive and flexural strengths of 47 MPa and 8.2 MPa, respectively. The steel fibers up to 1% enhanced the ultimate torque, torsional toughness, and twist at failure of the OPSFRC specimens by 60%, 1000%, and 550%, respectively. The addition of steel fibers significantly improved the crack resistance of the OPSFRC specimens.

Effects of Low Volume Fraction of Polyvinyl Alcohol Fibers on the Mechanical Properties of Oil Palm Shell Lightweight Concrete

This paper presents the effects of low volume fraction(Vf)of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers on the mechanical properties of oil palm shell (OPS) high strength lightweight concrete mixtures. The slump, density, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, and modulus of elasticity under various curing conditions have been measured and evaluated. The results indicate that an increase in PVA fibers decreases the workability of the concrete and decreases the density slightly. The 28-day compressive strength of oil palm shell fiber-reinforced concrete (OPSFRC) high strength lightweight concrete (HSLWC) subject to continuous moist curing was within the range of 43–49 MPa. The average modulus of elasticity (E) value is found to be 16.1 GPa for all mixes, which is higher than that reported in previous studies and is within the range of normal weight concrete. Hence, the findings of this study revealed that the PVA fibers can be used as an alternative material to enhance the properties of OPS HSLWC for building and construction applications.

Thermal Properties of Oil Palm Shell Lightweight Concrete with Different Mix Designs

Nowadays, the utilization of Oil Palm Shell (OPS) as lightweight aggregate in concrete especially in the structure application has become prevalent. As an industrial waste product, Oil Palm Shell (OPS) possibly will be the alternative material to be employed in the construction industry. With its advantage as heat resistant material, this study will focus on the potential of OPS as lightweight aggregate with regard to the optimum content of OPS for thermal insulating material. A total of 15 mixes were prepared and tested with 3 different cement/sand ratios (1.7, 1.8, 1.9) and 5 different cement contents (300, 350, 400, 450, 500 kg/m³). The result of this study show that the highest sand used will produced good workability but increased thermal conductivity of mix value. The test result indicates that the thermal conductivity and insulation criterion is substantially improved with the volume use of OPS and strong relationship between thermal conductivity and unit weight is obtained. The measured thermal conductivity value range from 0.54W/mC to 1.1 W/mC. The ideal value for semi structure insulation material establish by RILEM only achieve for mix that used cement content 400 kg/m³ and below, which thermal conductivity is 0.75 W/mC below.

A comparison study of the mechanical properties and drying shrinkage of oil palm shell and expanded clay lightweight aggregate concretes

For making artificial lightweight aggregate, selected raw materials are fed into a rotary kiln at high temperature. Providing such a high temperature is costly and generally, the process of making artificial lightweight aggregate is not environmentally friendly. The use of natural lightweight aggregate for making lightweight concrete can lead to low-cost construction. The use of a solid waste lightweight aggregate namely oil palm shell (OPS) as coarse aggregate, is not only environmentally friendly but leads to a low-cost material. This study is a comparison between some engineering properties of OPS lightweight concrete and an artificial lightweight (expanded clay) concrete with low water to cement ratio, along with having good workability and without any segregation. The test results show that OPS concrete has better mechanical properties and a higher efficiency factor than expanded clay lightweight concrete. The ceiling strength of expanded clay lightweight concrete occurs at an early age; while it happens in OPS concrete at a later age. The crack pattern of the tested specimens shows that OPS is much stronger than expanded clay. On the other hand, the compressive strength of OPS lightweight concrete is more sensitive to lack of curing. Although OPS lightweight concrete shows twice the amount of drying shrinkage than expanded clay lightweight concrete in the short term, this difference reduces significantly at later ages.

Engineering properties of oil palm shell lightweight concrete containing fly ash

The effect of cement replacement with type F fly ash at 0%, 10%, 30% and 50% on some engineering properties of an oil palm shell (OPS) high strength lightweight concrete was investigated. The properties studied include workability, density, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, water absorption and drying shrinkage. The effect of initial water curing periods of 2, 4 and 6days after demoulding and air drying environment on the 28-day compressive strength was also investigated. The test results showed that even with 50% substitution of cement with fly ash, a low cost grade 30 OPS lightweight concrete can be produced. Although the inclusion of fly ash in OPS concrete makes it more sensitive to curing, even 2days moist curing after demoulding significantly reduces this sensitivity. The results of the tensile strengths of OPS concretes imply that OPS concretes containing up to 50% fly ash are suitable for use as structural concrete elements. The use of 10% fly ash in OPS concrete did not affect the drying shrinkage of OPS high strength concrete.

Oil palm shell lightweight concrete containing high volume ground granulated blast furnace slag

With the ever-increasing industrialization and urbanization, huge amounts of natural resources are required to make concrete. Green concrete can provide a solution to reducing the negative impact of the concrete industry. This paper presents the results of experiments conducted to produce green structural lightweight concrete by using oil palm shell (OPS) as coarse aggregate, and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) as a supplementary cementing material at 30%, 50% and 70% replacement of cement, and exposed to different curing conditions. Depending on the curing condition, test results show the possibility of producing green structural lightweight aggregate concrete with 28-day compressive strength of 23–42MPa. The strength and density of GGBFS OPS concrete decrease as the percentage replacement of GGBFS increases. Data also show that initial hot water curing significantly improve the compressive strength of oil palm shell lightweight concrete containing high volume GGBFS at early age while this curing method is not useful for oil palm shell concrete containing just ordinary Portland cement. By incorporating GGBFS, grades 30 and 35 OPS concrete with significantly lower cement content than previous studies can be produced.

Oil palm shell lightweight concrete as a ductile material

Crushed large oil palm shell (OPS) was used as a coarse aggregate in four different concrete mixtures. The stress–strain behavior and modulus of elasticity of OPS concrete were investigated and compared to granite normal weight concrete (NWC) and expanded clay lightweight concrete (LWC). The stress–strain curve of the OPS concrete showed that this type of LWC, in contrast to many types of structural LWC, is a ductile material. The highest E value of about 18.4GPa was achieved in this study, which is significantly higher than previous studies. It was found that the E value of crushed OPS LWC was approximately 53% of the control NWC, which is approximately twice that of the uncrushed OPS concrete reported in the literature.

A new method of producing high strength oil palm shell lightweight concrete

This paper presents a new method to produce high strength lightweight aggregate concrete (HSLWAC) using an agricultural solid waste, namely oil palm shell (OPS). This method is based on crushing large old OPS. Crushed OPS are hard and have a strong physical bond with hydrated cement paste. The 28 and 56 days compressive strength achieved in this study were about 53 and 56 MPa, respectively. Furthermore, it was observed that it was possible to produce grade 30 OPS concrete without the addition of any cementitious materials. Compared to previous studies, significantly lower cement content was used to produce this grade of concrete. Unlike OPS concrete incorporating uncrushed OPS aggregate, this study found that there is a strong correlation between the short term and 28-day compressive strength.

Effect of steel fiber on the mechanical properties of oil palm shell lightweight concrete

This paper reports the results of a study conducted to investigate the effect of low volume content of steel fiber on the slump, density, compressive strength under different curing conditions, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength and modulus of elasticity of a grade 35 oil palm shell (OPS) lightweight concrete mixture. The results indicate that an increase in steel fiber decreased the workability and increased the density. All the mechanical properties except the modulus of elasticity (E) improved significantly. The 28 day compressive strength of steel fiber OPS lightweight concrete in continuously moist curing was in the range of 41–45 MPa. The splitting tensile/compressive and the flexural/compressive strength ratio for plain OPS concrete are comparable with artificial lightweight aggregate. The (E) value measured in this study was about 15.5 GPa on average for all mixes, which is higher than previous studies and is in the range of normal weight concrete. Steel fiber can be used as an alternative material to reduce the sensitivity of OPS concrete in poor curing environments.