Construction and Building Materials 76 (2015) 214–220

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Construction and Building Materials

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Performance evaluation of concrete containing high volume palm oil fuel

ash exposed to elevated temperature
A.S.M. Abdul Awal ⇑, I.A. Shehu
Department of Structure and Materials, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Malaysia

h i g h l i g h t s

 Concrete containing high volume palm oil fuel ash was thermally treated to elevated temperature.
 The structural behaviour in terms of residual pulse velocity, weight and strength were studied.
 The satisfactory performance of concrete containing ash against high temperature is highlighted.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The properties of concrete exposed to elevated temperature are of great importance in terms of structural
Received 12 June 2014 stability and assessment of serviceability state of the structure. This paper presents the results of a study
Received in revised form 28 November 2014 on the performance behaviour of concrete containing high volume palm oil fuel ash exposed to high tem-
Accepted 1 December 2014
perature. Concrete samples were made where ordinary Portland cement was replaced by 50%, 60% and
Available online 15 December 2014
70% palm oil fuel ash. The samples were thermally treated to elevated temperatures of 200, 400, 600
and 800 °C in an electric furnace for a period of 1 h after attaining the peak temperature. Specimens
Keywords:
exposed to elevated temperature were cured in air and were tested for visual observation, change in
Concrete
High volume
weight, ultrasonic pulse velocity and residual compressive strength. It has been observed that higher
Palm oil fuel ash the temperature, higher was the residual weight loss of concrete samples. Along with the loss of residual
Elevated temperature compressive strength, the ultrasonic pulse velocity of concrete was also reduced at elevated temperature.
Residual weight Data generated in this study was used to develop simple relationship for expressing residual compressive
Residual strength strength as a function of ultrasonic pulse velocity.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
With the increasing building activities, more interests have
been given in studying the behaviour of concrete at a high temper-
ature mainly resulting from fire. During a fire, the temperature
may reach up to 1350 °C in tunnel, reactor vessel, nuclear plant
and building under extreme events like blast or impact loading.
However, in some special cases, even much lower temperature
may cause explosive destruction of concrete, thus endangering
the bearing capacity of concrete element. Nevertheless, concrete
is considered a construction material that satisfactorily preserves
its properties at high temperature. Owing to its fairly low
coefficient of thermal conductivity, the movement of heat through
concrete is slow. When concrete is heated under conditions of fire,
the increase in temperature in the deeper layers of the material is
progressive; but because of the slow process, significant tempera-
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 167489357.
E-mail address: asm_abdulawal@yahoo.com (A.S.M. Abdul Awal).
ture gradients are produced between the concrete surface and core
inducing additional damage to the element [1–8].
Fundamental issues related to the impact of high temperature
on concrete involve identification of the complex changes that take
place in concrete while heated. At structural level, the behaviour of
the material is characterised by spalling with most cracks parallel
to the heated surface. Characteristics such as colour, surface tex-
ture, density, volume, compressive strength and elastic modulus
are affected remarkably upon heating resulting in a decrease in
structural stability of the concrete [9]. Further to that, at elevated
temperature the chemical composition and physical properties of
the concrete change significantly [4] where dehydration of water
from calcium silicate hydrate becomes critical above 110 °C. Over
the years extensive research works have been carried out to study
the behaviour of concrete at high temperature. Type of concrete
materials, moisture condition and the extent of fire has been
shown to largely affect the severity of damage to the structure.
Although leaner mixes appear to suffer a relatively lower loss of
strength than the rich ones, it has been possible to improve fire

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2014.12.001
0950-0618/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 A.S.M. Abdul Awal, I.A. Shehu / Construction and Building Materials 76 (2015) 214–220
resistance of concrete by the replacement of cement with pozzola-
nic materials [10–12].
There is no doubt that the last two decades have been charac-
terised by the development of new or largely innovative cementi-
tious composite materials that provide excellent mechanical
properties and high durability. These materials, either naturally
occurring or artificially made are used throughout the world for
their technical, ecological and economic advantages. One of the lat-
est additions to the ash family is palm oil fuel ash (POFA) obtained
on burning palm oil husk and palm kernel shell as fuel in palm oil
mills. These mills are self-sufficient in terms of energy consump-
tion as the waste materials are used as fuel to run the mill boilers.
The ash which was simply thrown away without any commercial
return is now considered a useful material showing high perfor-
mance in the development of strength and durability of concrete
at both indoor and outdoor exposure conditions [13–16]. The
countries in the equatorial belt that cultivate oil palm are Benin
Republic, Colombia, Ecuador, Nigeria, Zaire, Malaysia, Indonesia
and Thailand of which Malaysia is the largest producer of palm
oil and palm oil products. It has been estimated that the total solid
waste generated by this industry in some two hundred palm oil
mills in the country has amounted to about ten million tons a year
[17,18]. With the expansion of palm oil plantation in South-East
Asian regions, the production of palm oil and the consequent ash
generation in the mills are expected to increase further.
Advances in concrete technology have led to the application of
high volume fly ash to replace OPC in concrete, which has been in
practice since last decades. The high volume utilization not only
reduces the amount of solid waste and greenhouse gas emissions
associated with Portland cement manufacture but also conserves
the prevailing natural resources. Strictly, there is no limit for high
volume fly ash in concrete, but in general, it refers to structural
concrete with fly ash content substantially higher than that used
in conventional fly ash concrete, mostly 50% and above of the
weight of the binder [19,20]. This practice has been reported to
be successful in making both normal and high strength concrete
and has influenced various properties of concrete from fresh to
hardened state without compromising strength and durability
requirements [19–21]. Considering the availability and the poten-
tial pozzolanic behaviour of the ash, extensive research work on
the utilization of high volume palm oil fuel ash in concrete has
been carried out [22,23] in the Department of Structure and Mate-
rials, Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Technology
Malaysia. In order to extend the concept of high volume POFA uti-
lization and to evaluate the effect of exposure to extreme environ-
mental loading like fire, this paper presents the behaviour of palm
oil fuel ash concrete exposed to high temperature.
2. Materials and test methods
2.1. Materials
Palm oil fuel ash used in this study was obtained from a palm oil
mill located in the state of Johor, Malaysia. The ash was air dried and
Table 1
Mix proportion and strength of concrete.
Materials OPC concrete
OPC (kg/m3) 380
POFA (kg/m3) – 190
Coarse aggregate (kg/m3) 1024
Fine aggregate (kg/m3) 741
Water (kg/m3) 171
Superplasticizer (l/m3) 7.6
Slump (mm) 160
28-day compressive strength (N/mm2) 44.4
215
sieved using BS standard sieves to remove larger particles as well as
to reduce the carbon content. Materials passing through 150 lm
sieve were ground using a modified Los Angeles milling machine
having 10 stainless steel bars of 12 mm diameter  800 mm length
for 2 h per 4 kg of ash. The physical properties and chemical compo-
sition of the POFA together with that of ordinary Portland cement
(OPC) are presented in Table 2; the scanning electron micrograph
(SEM) of POFA being shown in Fig. 3.
A saturated surface dry river sand with fineness modulus of 2.9,
passing through sieve size of 4.75 mm having 2.6 specific gravity
and water absorption of 0.70% was used as fine aggregate. While
coarse aggregate used was crushed granite of 10 mm maximum
size with specific gravity of 2.7 and water absorption of 0.5%.
RHEOBUILD 1100 (HG), a polymer based superplasticizer was used
in order to improve workability and strength of concrete.
2.2. Manufacture of concrete
Table 1 summarizes the mixture proportion, workability and
strength of concrete. Ordinary Portland cement was replaced by
POFA at replacement levels of 50%, 60% and 70% by weight. Mixing
of concrete was carried out using concrete mixer, and workability
using slump measurement was done for each mixed batch. Fresh
concrete was cast into cube moulds having standard nominal size
of 100 mm to obtain test specimen. After casting, the specimens
were covered with plastic sheet, demoulded after 24 h and were
cured in water at a temperature of 23 ± 2 °C with ±85% RH until
testing.
2.3. Time–temperature history of furnace
Prior to testing, all specimens were weighed, and the control
specimen was tested for compressive strength without any heat
treatment at room temperature of 27 °C. Other samples were sub-
jected to heat treatment in an electric furnace to progressive tem-
perature rise of 200, 400, 600 and 800 °C for a period of 1 h, after
attaining the peak temperature. The electrically controlled furnace
and its time–temperature curve are illustrated in Figs. 1(a) and
1(b), respectively. The thermally treated specimens were air-cured
in the laboratory before they were tested for residual ultrasonic
pulse velocity, residual weight and residual compressive strength.
The temperature rating of the furnace known as experimental
temperature during testing is shown in Fig. 1(b). Although the heat
development was somewhat lower in the furnace, the temperature
curve demonstrated comparable behaviour to those of ISO 834 [24]
and ASTM E119 [25]. Previous studies by Khaliq and Kodur [2], Chan
et al. [26] and Peng et al. [27] showed a similar heating pattern.
2.4. Ultrasonic pulse velocity test
A non-destructive test using ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) was
conducted with the aid of Proceq apparatus and associated
transducer as shown in Fig. 2. The test was conducted after the
application of heat to obtain residual UPV. The transducer pair
50% POFA concrete 60% POFA concrete 70% POFA concrete
190 152 114
228 266
1024 1024 1024
741 741 741
171 171 171
7.6 7.6 7.6
130 90 70
35.7 29.5 27.0
216 A.S.M. Abdul Awal, I.A. Shehu / Construction and Building Materials 76 (2015) 214–220

which involves the surface outlook, shape and colour. Although,

this may not provide the real structural information about the dis-
tortion suffered by the concrete, but gives an instant impression of
failure tendency of the concrete. In the process of thermal treat-
ment on the concrete specimen, several surface and colour changes
were visually observed and are illustrated in Table 3 and Fig. 4.
The change in concrete weight was evaluated through mea-
suring the weight of samples before and after exposure to high
temperature. The weight loss is expressed as a percentage of
the original weight (before heating) at room temperature of
27 °C to the weight after exposure to a targeted temperature.
The effect of temperature on concrete specimen was also eval-
uated by measuring the residual compressive strength of concrete
exposed to various temperatures. With respect to the strength at
room temperature of 27 °C, the change in strength of different con-
crete mixes at temperature regions of 27–200, 200–400 and 400–
800 °C were measured.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Properties of palm oil fuel ash

Fig. 1(a). Electrically controlled furnace. In bulk, palm oil fuel ash (POFA) is grey in colour that becomes
darker with increasing proportions of unburned carbon. The parti-
cles have a wide range of sizes but they are relatively spherical; a
1200
typical electron micrograph of POFA is illustrated in Fig. 3. The
1000 physical properties and chemical composition of POFA are pre-
Temperature (°C)

800 sented in Table 2. It can be seen that POFA possess higher Blaine
600 fineness and lower specific gravity as compared to OPC. The chem-
ical composition reveals that POFA contains low calcium oxide;
400
ISO 834-12 with SiO2 + Al2O3 + Fe2O3 content greater than 70% which satisfies
200 ASTM E 119
Experimental
the requirement to be pozzolanic, and may be classified between
0 class F and class C according to the ASTM C618 [28]. It is interesting
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (min)
to note that the present-day classification system for grouping of
ashes into class N, class F and class C is not adequate to appraise
Fig. 1(b). Experimental time–temperature curve compared with the standard curve their total usefulness, particularly for agricultural ashes. Consider-
of ISO 834-12 and ASTM E 119. ing the origin and type, this ash is neither of class C nor of class F.

3.2. Effect of heating on physical characteristics of concrete

The summary of physical observation made on the concrete

Fig. 2. Ultrasonic pulse velocity testing device.
had a normal frequency of 500 KHZ. The principle of UPV test
involves sending a wave pulse into the concrete sample measuring
the speed and the travel time which the pulse propagates through
the concrete [9].
2.5. Visual observation and measurement of weight and strength
changes
specimens is presented in Table 3, while Fig. 4 illustrates the sur-
face condition of concrete after attaining 800 °C.
At room temperature (27 °C) the colours of the specimens were
moist-grey and black for OPC and POFA concrete, respectively, with
smooth surface and perfect edges. These characteristics have been
maintained up to the temperature of 200 °C, but at 400 °C a beige
and light black colour with smooth and perfect edges were
observed for OPC and POFA concrete, respectively. At 600 °C a
ghost white and dark grey colour with rough edges were detected
for both OPC and POFA concrete. At 800 °C, OPC concrete was
found to develop cracks on the surface with whitish-grey colour
while POFA concrete suffered from hairy cracks with brownish
grey colour.
In general, the colour changes experienced in high volume POFA
concrete as a result of heating may be linked to the chemical trans-
formations taking place in the heated specimen. POFA contains a
higher proportion of Fe2O3 in amorphous state as compared to
the OPC, and at elevated temperature the iron oxide in POFA oxi-
dized at temperature above 250 °C. Thus produces an appearance
with an intensive range of colours as the heating progressed.
3.3. Ultrasonic pulse velocity of test specimens

The first and the foremost assessment of concrete affected by Fig. 5 reveals the change in ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) of
fire or subjected to elevated temperature is its physical appearance concrete exposed to various temperatures. It can be seen that
 A.S.M. Abdul Awal, I.A. Shehu / Construction and Building Materials 76 (2015) 214–220 217

Table 2
Physical properties and chemical composition of OPC and POFA.

Physical properties OPC POFA Chemical composition (%) OPC POFA

Specific gravity 3.15 2.42 SiO2 20.4 62.60
Blaine fineness (cm3/g) 3990 4930 Al2O3 5.20 4.65
Passing sieve 10 lm (%) 19 33 Fe2O3 4.19 8.12
Soundness (mm) 1.0 2.0 CaO 62.39 5.70
MgO 1.55 3.52
K2O 0.005 9.05
SO3 2.11 1.16
LOI 2.36 6.25
SiO2 + Al2O3 + Fe2O3 – 75.37

Table 3
Physical characteristics of concrete at various temperatures.

Temperature (°C) Specimen Surface characteristics

Shape Colour Texture
27 OPC Perfect cube Moist-grey Smooth
50% POFA Perfect cube Black Smooth
60% POFA Perfect cube Black Smooth
70%POFA Perfect cube Black Smooth
200 OPC Perfect cube Grey Smooth
50% POFA Perfect cube Black Smooth
60% POFA Perfect cube Black Smooth
70%POFA Perfect cube Black Smooth
400 OPC Perfect cube Beige Smooth
50% POFA Perfect cube Light black Smooth
60% POFA Perfect cube Light black Smooth
70%POFA Perfect cube Light black Smooth
600 OPC Rough edge Ghost white Rough
50% POFA Perfect edge Light grey Rough
60% POFA Perfect edge Light grey Rough
70%POFA Rough edge Light grey Rough
800 OPC Distorted Whitish grey Cracks/depression
50% POFA Distorted Brownish grey Cracks/fragmentation
60% POFA Distorted Brownish grey Cracks/fragmentation
70%POFA Distorted Brownish grey Cracks/fragmentation

change of velocity is due to the deterioration of the microstructure

of the concrete exposed to high temperature. Topcu and Demir [29]
attributed this type of change to degradation of the C-S-H gel at
temperature above 450 °C which increases the amount of air voids
in the concrete decreasing the transmission speed of sound waves
through the test specimens.

3.4. Influence of temperature on concrete weight

The effect of elevated temperature on the weight loss of OPC

Fig. 3. Scanning electron micrograph of POFA.
during the initial temperature, the change in velocity was high, and
higher the temperature lower was the velocity. The UPV value of
OPC concrete, for example, at the initial temperature was
4534 m/s, and is considered to be excellent in-terms of concrete
quality [7]. While UPV values ranging from 3500 to 4500 m/s were
obtained at temperature range of 200–400 °C, and is classified as
good quality concrete for both OPC and POFA concrete. But at
600–800 °C the results obtained are considered doubtful in-terms
of quality. It is generally understood that this reduction in the
and POFA concrete is illustrated in Fig. 6. Considering the outlook
of residual weight and compressive strength obtained at elevated
temperature the analysis of temperature effect has been divided
into three temperature regions namely; region 1, 2 and 3 with tem-
perature ranges of 27–200 °C, 200–400 °C and 400–800 °C, respec-
tively. It can be seen that higher the temperature greater was the
loss in weight of test samples. In the first region i.e., up to temper-
ature of 200 °C the weight loss was minimal in both OPC and POFA
concrete. The loss observed in this region is due to moisture move-
ment from concrete surface to the surrounding environment. The
reduction in weight gradually increased in the second region
(200–400 °C) with 4.6% highest loss in 50% POFA concrete. How-
ever, there was a sharp raise of weight loss in the last region par-
ticularly at temperature ranging from 600 to 800 °C, where a
maximum loss of 12% occurred in 70% POFA concrete specimen.
The weight loss in concrete during the exposure to high tempera-
ture can be attributed to the changes in stiffness and mechanical
properties of the concrete. The structural integrity in terms of
218 A.S.M. Abdul Awal, I.A. Shehu / Construction and Building Materials 76 (2015) 214–220

OPC 50% POFA 60% POFA 70% POFA

Fig. 4. Surface texture of the concrete samples exposed to elevated temperature of 800 °C.

5000 50
Ultrasonic pulse velocity (m/s)

OPC OPC
50% POFA 50% POFA

Residual compressive
4000 60% POFA 40 60% POFA
70% POFA 70% POFA

strength (MPa)
3000 30

2000 20

1000 10

0
27 200 400 600 800 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Temperature (°C)
Temperature (°C)
Fig. 5. Change in ultrasonic pulse velocity of concrete exposed to elevated
temperature. Fig. 7. Effect of temperature on residual compressive strength of various concrete
mixes.

16
takes place at temperature beyond 450 °C. This resulted in weak-
Weight loss (%)

12 ening of cement paste and other aggregate content, leading to

8 It is interesting to note that there was a slight increase in resid-
4 50% POFA
0 and increase in binding properties of C-H-S from the specimen
0 100 200 300 400 500
Temperature (°C)
Fig. 6. Influence of temperature on weight loss of various concrete mixes.
weight loss of concrete has also been interpreted by Topcu and
Demir [29]. They observed that cement paste loses its binding
properties due to the evaporation of water in C-S-H structure
and decomposition of Ca(OH)2. The weight loss in POFA concrete
could possibly due to greater moisture content withheld by POFA
particles.
3.5. Effect on residual compressive strength
The residual compressive strength of OPC and POFA concrete
subjected to high temperature are shown in Fig. 7. As shown in
the figure, it is apparent that the residual compressive strength is
influenced by the degree of exposure. Fig. 7 reveals that the
residual compressive strength of OPC concrete, which is 44.4 N/
mm2 at room temperature, decreases steadily with the increase
in temperature in the first region (27–200 °C), at faster rate within
the second region (200–400 °C) and with a sharp fall in the third
region i.e., temperature ranging from 400 to 800 °C. The decrease
in residual compressive strength in the first and second region
may be attributed to gradual dehydration within the cement
matrix, as observed in the weight loss, thus changing the physical
characteristics of the concrete from saturated surface dry state to a
dry state. In the third region, the sharp fall in residual compressive
strength could be due to dehydration of both calcium silicate
hydrates (C-H-S) and decomposition of calcium hydroxides that
destruction of micro-structural arrangements in the concrete.
OPC ual compressive strength at the first region for the concrete speci-
60% POFA men containing POFA. This may be ascribed due to the loss of water
70% POFA
600 700 800 900 leading to pre-hardening state [30]. While in the second region,
for example, concrete containing 70% POFA was found to continue
gaining residual compressive strength. This behaviour of concrete
could possibly due to the production of extra C-S-H gel contribut-
ing towards densification of internal structure of the concrete by
making it stiffer. A severe fall on residual compressive strength
was, however, found to occur in the entire specimen at tempera-
ture beyond 600 °C and the reason could be the same as stated ear-
lier in case of OPC concrete.
An earlier study by Ismail et al. [5] made similar observations
and reveals that the residual compressive strength of concrete
made with POFA increased with temperature up to 500 °C, and
then decreased sharply with increasing temperature. Likewise,
Morsy et al. [31] reported a continuous increase in residual
compressive strength in concrete containing silica fume up to a
temperature of 400 °C before development of sharp loss of
strength. Research findings, however, have shown that concrete
enriched with pumice and fly ash does not suffer any loss in
strength after exposure to temperature of 600 °C [32].
3.6. Relationship between the residual compressive strength and
residual UPV values
Fig. 8 illustrates the relationship between residual compressive
strength and residual ultrasonic pulse velocity of OPC and POFA
concrete at high temperature. A positive relationship between
the residual compressive strength and residual ultrasonic pulse
velocity can clearly be observed in these figures. The measured
residual compressive strength values at high temperature were
used as response parameter with the UPV as their predicator
 A.S.M. Abdul Awal, I.A. Shehu / Construction and Building Materials 76 (2015) 214–220 219

parameter. A linear regression method was applied to correlate the 27 200 400 600 800
20
experimental data resulting in the following Eqs. (1)–(4), with a

Strength loss (%)

0
coefficient of determination R2 lying between 0.96 and 0.98 for
all specimens, which represents a good confidence of relationship: -20
-40 OPC
Y RCS ¼ 0:0098X RUPV  1:6118 ð1Þ 50% POFA
-60 60% POFA
70% POFA
Y RCS ¼ 0:0077X RUPV þ 3:9503 ð2Þ -80
Temperature (°C)

Y RCS ¼ 0:0078X RUPV  0:2808 ð3Þ Fig. 9. Merit of high volume POFA concrete over OPC concrete.

Y RCS ¼ 0:0073X RUPV þ 0:3951 ð4Þ

where, YRCS and XRUPV represent residual compressive strength and
residual ultrasonic pulse velocity, respectively.
The regression Eqs. (1)–(4)of post fire effect of OPC concrete and
that of concrete containing high volume palm oil fuel ash can be
used to evaluate the residual compressive strength of concrete
using the measured value of residual ultrasonic pulse velocity.
Although not with POFA concrete, similar observations have been
made by Lin et al. [9] and Yang et al. [33].
3.7. Relative performance of OPC and high volume POFA concrete
The relative performance in terms of strength loss of concrete
specimens exposed to elevated temperature is demonstrated in
Fig. 9. The performance was calculated as the percentage of
strength retained in specimen with respect to the strength of the
unheated specimen. The difference between the residual compres-
sive strength is used as the indices of performance. The perfor-
mance analysis presented in terms of strength loss in the Figure
reveals a relative performance value of strength loss of 7–57% at
temperature range of 200–800 °C for OPC concrete. The strength
loss in OPC sample reflects the breakdown of chemically combined
water and decomposition of Ca(OH)2 within the cement matrix.
Concrete with high volume POFA, however, showed a different
trend. At the temperature of up to 400 °C, a 3–13% gain in strength
has been observed. The strength gain observed with the high vol-
ume POFA specimen might be the beneficial effect of pozzolanic
reaction. Whereas the Ca(OH)2 from OPC is been consumed by
silica and alumina compounds from POFA, thus providing extra
secondary gel from the reaction which reduces the thermal decom-
position of POFA specimen.
It is worth to note that higher was the replacement level of
cement with POFA better was the overall performance. Although
there has been a substantial strength loss in performance of POFA
specimens at a very high temperature, yet it performed well as
compared to the concrete made with OPC alone. The higher magni-
tude in residual performance of high volume POFA concrete when
compared with the lower values of OPC especially in the tempera-
ture range of 400–600 °C could be related to early shrinkage of the
cement paste. Since high volume POFA concrete contains smaller
quantity of cement, it might therefore experience lower amount
of shrinkage in the cement matrix.
4. Conclusion
The performance of high volume palm oil fuel ash concrete
exposed to elevated temperature has been outlined in this paper.
The results obtained and the observation made in this study draw
some conclusions. These are:
(1) At all levels of replacement, concrete containing high vol-
ume palm oil fuel ash exhibited satisfactory performance
at high temperature.
(2) In general, higher the temperature greater was the loss in
weight of the concrete. Among three replacements, concrete
containing 50% ash showed better performance.

50 50
Residual compressive strength

Residual compressive strength

OPC concrete 50% POFA concrete

40 40

30 30
(MPa)

(MPa)

20 20

10 y = 0.0098x -1.6118 10 y = 0.0077x + 3.9503

R² = 0.9897 R² = 0.9952
0 0
0 2000 4000 6000 0 2000 4000 6000
Ultrasonic pulse velocity (m/s)
Ultrasonic pulse velocity (m/s)

50 50
Residual compressive strength

Residual compressive strength

60% POFA concrete 70% POFA concrete

40 40

30 30
(MPa)
(MPa)

20 20

10 y = 0.0078x -0.2808 10 y = 0.0073x + 0.3951

R² = 0.9714 R² = 0.9622
0 0
0 2000 4000 6000 0 2000 4000 6000
Ultrasonic pulse velocity (m/s) Ultrasonic pulse velocity (m/s)

Fig. 8. Relationship between the residual compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity.
220 A.S.M. Abdul Awal, I.A. Shehu / Construction and Building Materials 76 (2015) 214–220
(3) Unlike weight loss, the overall residual compressive strength
of high volume POFA concrete was not much affected partic-
ularly at initial rise of temperature. The reduction in residual
compressive strength was, however, more prominent in con-
crete exposed to temperature higher than 600 °C.
(4) A good correlation between the residual pulse velocity and
residual compressive strength has been established for the
purpose of evaluating residual compressive strength of ther-
mally treated POFA concrete. However, more research work
is needed to evaluate both macro and micro-structural
behaviour of concrete exposed to high temperature for a
longer period.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the help and co-operation
received from the technical staff of the Structure and Materials lab-
oratory of the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in conducting
the experimental work. The financial support from the University
Research Grant (No. 01J81) is also gratefully acknowledged.
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