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A Study On Some Durability Properties of Coconut Shell Aggregate Concrete
A Study On Some Durability Properties of Coconut Shell Aggregate Concrete
A Study On Some Durability Properties of Coconut Shell Aggregate Concrete
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K. Gunasekaran R. Annadurai
SRM University SRM University
32 PUBLICATIONS 254 CITATIONS 54 PUBLICATIONS 221 CITATIONS
P. S. Kumar
Anna University, Chennai
18 PUBLICATIONS 295 CITATIONS
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Received: 16 May 2013 / Accepted: 27 November 2013 / Published online: 5 December 2013
Ó RILEM 2013
Abstract In this study, coconut shell was used as Keywords Coconut shell Concrete
recycled lightweight aggregate in concrete. For coco- Curing Durability Elevated temperature
nut shell aggregate concrete (CSAC) to be used in
realistic situations, its strength, durability and its
temperature resistance need to be examined. There-
fore, this study investigated the durability perfor-
mance of CSAC in three curing conditions and 1 Introduction
resistance at elevated temperatures. The durability
properties investigated include the absorption, volume The production of concrete consumes a great quantity
of permeable voids, sorptivity, rapid chloride pene- of natural resources. As a measure of ensuring the
tration test, salt ponding test, and temperature resis- availability of wealth for future generations, it is
tance. The test results showed that the durability obligatory to take on engineering practices that focus
properties of CSAC are comparable to that of other on the conservation of non-renewable resources as well
conventional lightweight concretes (LWCs) and con- as energy. Researchers have been formulating novel
venient curing is necessary for CSAC to achieve better technologies that offer a sustainable approach in the
durability. Temperature resistance of CSAC at ele- construction industry. Hence, large amounts of many
vated temperature, color changes; residual strength is industrial wastes, domestic wastes, and agricultural
comparable with LWCs. wastes are recycled as a substitute for the cement or
aggregate in concrete [1]. One of the approaches is the
K. Gunasekaran (&) R. Annadurai use of alternative materials such as solid waste
Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering materials and by-products as building materials in the
and Technology, SRM University, construction industry. One such alternative is coconut
Kattankulathur 603 203, Tamil Nadu, India
shell (CS), which is one of the most common agricul-
e-mail: gunarishi@yahoo.com;
gunasekaran.k@ktr.srmuniv.ac.in tural solid wastes in many tropical countries. World top
ten countries by coconut production for 2009 are
R. Annadurai
e-mail: hod.civil@ktr.srmuniv.ac.in shown in Table 1. The three main producers, Indone-
sia, the Philippines and India account for 87.14 % of
P. S. Kumar world production [2]. Within India, by state wise
Department of Civil, University College of Engineering
coconut production for 2010–2011 are shown in
(A Constitution College of Anna University, Chennai),
Panruti, India Table 2, in this *60 % of the total production of
e-mail: erpsuresh@tau.edu.in coconut is concentrated in South India. After the
1254 Materials and Structures (2015) 48:1253–1264
Table 1 World top ten countries by coconut production [2] compressive, flexural, splitting tensile strengths and
Country Coconut production
impact resistance of CS concrete. In that, it was
(MT) 2009 concluded that the behavior of CS concrete is similar
to conventional concrete and all these mechanical
Indonesia 21,565,700 properties are in the acceptable range [4].
Philippines 15,667,600 A concrete structure is considered to have an
India 10,148,000 adequate durability if it performs in accordance with
Sri Lanka 2,099,000 its intended level of functionality and serviceability
Brazil 1,973,370 over an expected or predicted life cycle. The perme-
Thailand 1,380,980 ability of concrete structures, especially when the
Viet Nam 1,128,500 concrete structures are in severe exposure challenges,
Mexico 1,004,710 this property of concrete decides its ultimate service-
Papua New Guinea 930,000 ability and durability [7]. Since the mechanical
United Republic of Tanzania 577,099 properties of CS concrete are in acceptable range
[3, 4] and hence for coconut shell aggregate concrete
(CSAC) to be used in realistic implementations, it is
coconut is scraped out, the shell is usually discarded as desired to investigate its durability in this study.
waste. The vast amount of this discarded CS resource is
yet unutilized commercially; its use as a building
material, especially in concrete, on the lines of other 2 Significance of the study
lightweight aggregates is an interesting topic and hence
studied by the authors. From the earlier study of the The term durability of a material relates to its service
authors on CS concrete, it has been recommended that life under given environmental conditions. Durability
the CS solid waste can be recycled and used as coarse of concrete, or lack of it, can be defined and interpreted
aggregate for the production of concrete [3–6]. to mean its resistance (or absence of resistance) to
Authors are reported in their earlier publication deteriorating influences which may through inadver-
about the CS concrete mechanical properties namely tence or ignorance reside inside the concrete itself, or
which are inherent in the environment to which the aggregate, mix design, mixing procedure using CS as
concrete is exposed. Under normal circumstance, an aggregate while in the process of producing fresh
concrete is generally durable. Problems arise when concrete and the properties of CS are well discussed
concrete contains ingredients which were not known elaborately in already published publications else-
beforehand to be deleterious or when it is exposed to where [3–6]. Figure 1a shows the source of raw CS
harmful environments not anticipated earlier. The available at local coconut oil mill industry, Fig. 1b
absence of durability may be caused by external shows the crushed CS and Fig. 1c shows the particle
agencies like weathering, attack by natural or industrial grades of CSAs respectively.
liquids and gases, bacterial growth, etc., or by internal Collected raw CSs were crushed to the required
agencies like harmful alkali aggregate reactions, vol- sizes in the range between 3 and 12 mm in length using
ume change due to non-compatibility of thermal and a mini CS crusher which is specially developed and
mechanical properties of aggregate and cement paste, installed at SRM University, Chennai. Some of the
presence of sulphates and chlorides from ingredients of properties on CS such as moisture content, water
concrete, etc. In case of reinforced concrete, the ingress absorption, specific gravity, density, crushing strength,
of moisture or air will facilitate the corrosion of steel, impact strength, abrasion resistance, percentage voids,
leading to an increase in the volume of steel and flakiness index are studied and the results are presented
cracking and spalling of concrete cover. Therefore, this in Table 3. Since moisture content and water absorp-
study aimed to investigate the durability performance of tion properties of CS are more compare to conven-
CSAC under three types of curing conditions and the tional stone aggregate, it was decided to use CS in
tests included are volume of permeable voids (VPV), saturated surface dry (SSD) conditions for the pro-
sorptivity, water permeability, 90-day salt solution duction CSAC and followed 24 h soaking period for
ponding, and rapid chloride penetrability test (RCPT). CS before batching to produce CSAC in this study.
All these tests were conducted at an age of 3, 7, 28, 56, From the results and report of chemical analysis, it can
and 90 days respectively. be concluded that, the different forms of sugar as
present in CS are not react with the ingredients of
concrete, to alter the setting action of CSAC. There-
3 Coconut shell aggregate concrete (CSAC) fore, there is no need to treat the CS before use as an
aggregate except for its water absorption.
All materials used for the production of CSAC were The mix design for the CSAC used in this study was
locally available and these included ordinary Portland based on already established optimized mix ratio for M25
cement 53 Grade conforming to Indian Standard IS grade concrete by considering cement content, wood–
12269: 1987 [8] and river sand (Palar river bed) cement ratio, and water–cement ratio [3, 4]. The selected
conforming to grading zone III as per IS 383-1970 [9]. and established mix ratio for CSAC is 1:1.47:0.65:0.42
Crushed CS aggregates were used as coarse aggregate. by weight of cement (cement:sand:CS:water) in which
The characteristics of CS, process of making CS as an cement content was set as 510 kg/m3 [3, 4].
1256 Materials and Structures (2015) 48:1253–1264
i ¼ St0:5 ; ð1Þ
where i is the cumulative water absorption per unit
area of concrete surface, S is the sorptivity coefficient
and t is the time at which the weight is determined.
W1- Full Water curing W2 Site curing W3 air-dry (no curing) W1- Full Water curing W2 Site curing W3 air-dry (no curing)
14 25
Water absorption ( %)
12
10 20
VPV( %)
15
6
4 10
2
0 5
0 20 40 60 80 100
Age (days) 0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Fig. 4 Water absorption of CSAC Age (days)
W1- Full Water curing W2 Site curing W3 air-dry (no curing) W1-Full water W2-Site condition W3-Air dry
0.2 4000
3500
0.14
0.12
0.1 3000
0.08
0.06
0.04 2500
0.02
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 2000
Age (days) 28 56 90
Age (days)
Fig. 6 Sorptivity of CSAC under different curing conditions
Fig. 7 RCPT values of CSAC under different curing. (Color
figure online)
curing conditions, respectively. These values compare
well with those of other LWC prepared from expanded penetrability, with specimens cured in different con-
shale and sintered pulverized fuel ash, which have ditions (W1, W2 and W3) producing better quality of
sorptivity values of about 0.03 and 0.06 mm/min0.5 CSAC. Although the RCPT values indicate moderate
respectively [25]. Also, sorptivity of CSAC is compa- chloride penetrability, the decrease in the charge
rable with the similar kind of materials like OPS which passed with age shows that there is an improvement of
ranged from 0.06 to 0.14 mm/min0.5 [24]. the pore structure in the CSAC matrix.
CSAC has comparatively low sorptivity and this It was also observed that the temperature of the
may perhaps be due to the high quantity and quality of specimens continued to increase as testing progressed.
cement paste which was produced with a low w/c ratio Upon completion of the tests, high temperatures were
of 0.42. A better level of compaction has been shown observed on the tested specimens as determined from
to improve the sorptivity of concrete due to the the physical examination of the specimens. This phe-
elimination or reduction of large pores in the paste nomenon occurs because lower quality concretes as
[26]. Therefore, the compaction method adopted for compared to high strength and high performance
CSAC seems to produce concrete with low sorptivity. concrete tend to get heated more as the rise in
In certain coarse LWA, the cement paste infiltrates the temperature is related to the product of the current and
aggregate outside to a particular depth, as a result the voltage [29]. Hence, the lower the quality of
improving the aggregate interfacial zone [27] and this concrete, the greater the current at a given voltage,
may be the case for CSAC. The improved aggregate causing greater heat energy to be produced. This heating
interface zone coupled with the capability of CS leads to a further increase in the charge passed, over
aggregate to provide internal curing resulted in the what would be experienced if the temperature remained
lower sorptivity of cured specimens (curing W1 and constant. Finally, lower quality concretes may appear
W2) compared to the uncured specimens (curing W3). even worse that it would otherwise. Therefore, this may
Sorptivity values of CSAC at different ages under have been the case for CSAC. The RCPT values indicate
three different curing conditions are shown in Fig. 6. moderate chloride penetrability; the decrease in the
charge passed with age shows that there is an improve-
5.4 Rapid chloride penetration test (RCPT) ment of the pore structure in the CSAC matrix due to the
continual process of hydration of cement products.
RCPT results for specimens CSAC are shown in
Fig. 7. At 28 days, the RCPT values of CSAC ranged 5.5 Chloride profile
from about 2,765–3,880 C. For LWC made from
expanded clay, the RCPT values ranged from about The chloride profile of CSAC is illustrated in Fig. 8.
2,115–3,336 C [28]. Also, at an age of 28 days, RCPT From the chloride profile, it is observed that the
values of OPS concrete ranged from 3,581 to 4,549 C surface chloride concentration was quite high. This
[24]. CSAC shows moderate chloride-ion could be credited to the porous character of CS which
Materials and Structures (2015) 48:1253–1264 1261
5
W2-Site condition W3-Air dry case of W2 curing, continuous water is not available
throughout its curing period and at the time of lack of
Chloride Concentration (%)
4.5
4 water for curing, the water absorbed by the CS pore
3.5 structure reservoir would help for continuous hydra-
3 tion process and hence there is less chance of
2.5 developing lubrication between the CS and the cement
2 paste. Since there is no water supply in the case of W3
1.5 curing, the water absorbed by CS during the time of
1 soaking would help the hydration process in the CSAC
0.5
to some extent. This effect of internal curing was
0
0 to 5 5 to 10 10 to 15 15 to 20 20 to 25 25 to 30 already discussed for long term strength study on
Depth (mm) CSAC and reported elsewhere [3] and also concur-
rence with the literatures on influences of internal
Fig. 8 Chloride profile of CSAC under different curing. (Color curing condition of concrete [31, 32].
figure online)
permitted the deposition of chloride ions in its pores. 5.7 Resistance capacity at elevated temperature
The accumulation of chlorides in the CS and cement
paste pores led to the high chloride concentration at Compressive strength of CSAC cubes controlled
the surface. Nevertheless, the chloride content consis- specimen (subjected to no temperature) under full
tently decreases with increasing depth intervals from water curing (W1) at an age of 28 days was 26.70 N/
the surface of the specimen. Specimens cured under mm2. Specimens were also tested for its residual
W2 and W1 conditions recorded the least quantity of compressive strength after specific temperature and
infiltrated chlorides, with 0.18 and 0.28 % of cement duration applied on the CSAC cube specimen. The
content at 25–30 mm depth interval, respectively, as results of residual strength of CSAC under different
compared to specimens under W3 curing, which temperatures and durations are reported as an average
contained about 0.66 %. These results again empha- of three specimens and they are presented in Table 4.
sise the importance of proper curing of concrete The formation of surface cracks and the color changes
exposed to salt-laden environments, so that the due to the variation of temperature on CSAC are
intrusion of chlorides into the cover concrete can be shown in Fig. 9, at 100, 200, 300, 400 °C, for 4 h
minimized. The chloride verge in concrete is the level duration each, respectively. The color changes and the
where the chloride content at the depth of steel crucial residual strength due to variation of temperatures for
to initiate corrosion reduces. Different codes of the conventional concrete are presented in Table 5,
practice provide different limits for chloride content which is referred from the literature [33, 34].
in concrete. A value of 0.4 % total chloride by mass of In case of conventional concrete, there is no change
cement as the limit for total chloride content is of color up to 300 °C, and the residual strengths are 98,
specified in BS8110 [30]. 92, 88, and 70 % at 100, 200, 300, and 400, respec-
tively [33, 34]. In this study on CSAC, up to 100 °C at
5.6 Effect of internal curing 3 h, there was no color change. After 3 h at 100 °C, the
color of CSAC changed to light white. At 200 °C up to
It was found that intermittent curing (W2) conditions 1 h, there was no color change, and after 1 and 2 h,
produced the highest CSAC strength, followed by full color changed to light brown. After 3 h, color changed
water curing, and then air-dry curing for the properties from light brown to yellow brown. At 300 °C after 1 h
such as water absorption, VPVs, sorptivity, RCPT and and at 2 h color changed to brown. After 2 h color
chloride profile. This is due to the effect of internal changed to whitish grey and then changed to white. At
curing offered by CS in CSAC. In case of W1 curing, 400 °C at 1 h duration color changed to light brown,
specimens are always in under water and this creates after 1 h color changed to light ash. After 2 h color
lubrication between CS and the cement paste. It may changed from light ash to light yellow and after 3 h
also have reduced the heat of hydration. But, in the color changed from light yellow to light grey.
1262 Materials and Structures (2015) 48:1253–1264
Table 4 Results of
Temperature Duration Loss in weight Loss in Residual Residual
temperature tests on CSAC
(°C) in (h) (kg/m3) weight (%) strength (N/mm2) strength (%)
cubes
100 1 10 0.51 24.90 93
2 22 1.12 22.00 82
3 45 2.28 18.10 68
4 68 3.45 18.00 67
200 1 155 7.81 20.20 76
2 230 11.67 18.40 69
3 254 12.89 15.40 58
4 278 14.11 13.20 49
300 1 256 12.99 11.20 42
2 370 18.78 8.70 33
3 430 21.83 6.80 25
4 497 25.23 5.95 22
400 1 317 16.09 9.75 37
2 463 23.50 6.55 25
3 522 26.50 5.30 20
4 560 28.43 4.50 17
Fig. 9 CSAC cubes at 100, 200, 300, and 400 °C for 4 h duration
The residual compressive strength of CSAC is *93, 25, 20 and 17 % at 400 °C at 1, 2, 3 and 4 h duration,
82, 68 and 67 % at 100 °C at 1, 2, 3 and 4 h duration, 76, respectively of its original strength. Figure 10 shows the
69, 58 and 49 % at 200 °C at 1, 2, 3 and 4 h duration, 42, temperature versus residual strength and Fig. 11 shows
33, 25 and 22 % at 300 °C at 1, 2, 3 and 4 h duration, 37, that the time versus % residual strength of CSAC.
Materials and Structures (2015) 48:1253–1264 1263
Table 5 Colors of conventional concrete due to temperature resistance at elevated temperature, color changes,
[34] residual strength compare reasonably well with other
Temperature (°C) Colors of conventional concrete LWCs. This study shows that, CSs are can be a
sustainable alternative material for aggregate for
0–300 No change in original colour concrete production.
300–600 Pink or red
600–900 Purple/whitish grey Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank the SRM
Above 900 Buff University Management for their support to complete this
study and those who were directly or indirectly involved in this
study. Also thanks Dr. V. Deeptha Thattai, Assistant Professor
30
(S.G), Civil, SRM University for her help in language and other
corrections to make this manuscript in this level.
1 hour duration
25
Residual Strength (N/mm2)
2 hours duration
20 3 hours duration
4 hours duration References
15