MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF OIL PALM LEAF ASH – CEMENT BASED CONCRETE

ABSTRACT

The project summarized mechanical properties of Oil Palm Leaf Ash-cement based concrete in order to reduce the amount of cement needed while still maintaining its strength. The oil palm has a current lifespan of 7 years, as of the time of investigation. The oil palm leaf ash used in this study was sourced from dried waste palm leaves from Field 2 in the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR), after undergoing burning. It was utilized to partially substitute cement by 0%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10%. X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) revealed that the ash's most reactive components had a composition of 54.23% SiO2, 6.04% Al2O3, 8.02% CaO, 9.56% Fe2O3 and Loss of Ignition (LOI) of 4.52%. Additionally, its specific gravity was determined to be 1.37. The particle size distribution revealed that the effective diameter of the fine and coarse aggregates was 0.165mm and 8.75mm respectively. A slump test was conducted to determine the workability of fresh concrete and a compressive strength test was carried out on 54 hardened 100 x 100 x 100mm concrete cubes at 7, 14, and 28 days. The maximum workability value of 20mm was recorded at 0% replacement but decreased with an increase in percentage replacement. The optimum compressive strength achieved was 31.2 N/mm2 at 2% replacement, which was higher than the control. Meanwhile, the compressive strength at 2% replacement along with the physical and chemical properties conformed to the BS codes of practice, indicating that oil palm leaf ash may be suitable for use in the production of concrete.