Structural Lightweight Aggregate Concrete by Incorporating Solid Wastes as Coarse Lightweight Aggregate

Structural lightweight aggregate concrete offers several benefits as compared to the normal weight concrete. Most common methods of producing structural lightweight concrete is by using artificial lightweight aggregates. However, the cost of the production of artificial lightweight aggregates is high due to energy and raw materials consumption. The use of waste and by-product materials as lightweight aggregate in concrete can provide a better solution to reducing the negative impact of the concrete industry. This paper reports an investigation to produce structural lightweight aggregate concrete by utilizing the locally available solid waste materials, namely oil palm shell (OPS) and oil-palm-boiler clinkers (OPBC) as coarse lightweight aggregates. Two different mix proportions were studied. In the first concrete mix, just OPS was used as coarse aggregate. However, 40% of OPS (by volume) of the first mix was replaced with OPBC in the second mix. The test results showed that by replacing OPS with OPBC, it directly affects the characteristics of the lightweight concrete. The 28-days compressive strength of the blended coarse lightweight aggregate concrete was significantly increased compared to OPS concrete.