The efficiency of durian shell ash as partial replacement of cement in concrete for mechanical properties improvement.

Study on usage of agriculture and food waste as a replacement of building construction materials has become trend due to its potential in lowering the construction cost and reducing the environmental impact. In Malaysia, the demand of durian has kept increasing each year, and so hence, its production. That translates to the increase of durian shell wastage. The burnt durian shell ash has a physical similarity to cement. Hence, the intention to convert durian shell to durian shell ash (DSA) and mixing it into the concrete mixture as a partial cement replacement could help to minimize the environmental issues related to durian shell, and hence minimizing cement use. This study will determine the DSA role as a partial replacement of cement to improve the performance of concrete. DSA was used to replace the cement contents in concrete by weight of 5%, 10%, and 15%. The properties of the concrete are investigated during fresh and hardened state. Workability, setting time, expansion, and fineness of DSA as cement replacement were determined during trial mixes while the test carried out during the hardened state includes compressive strength test, flexural test, tensile test, and ultrasonic pulse velocity test. Results show that the DSA existence in concrete does affects the properties of the concrete. The workability of the fresh concrete decreases as the cement replacement increases and the strength of the concrete decreases as the percentage of DSA in the concrete mixture increases, making it potentially useful in producing a mass concrete. The optimum percentage of 5% of DSA replacement in concrete is possible to produce concrete mix with strength more than 30 MPa. This proves that durian shell ash is a suitable replacement for cement for producing high compressive strength concrete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]