Cracking behavior of reinforced lightweight concrete beam using hot water pre-treated oil palm shell coarse aggregate

Abstract

As one of the largest palm oil producers in the world, by-products of this commodity are also produced in Indonesia. One of the solid by-products that are obtained from palm oil production is called Oil Palm Shell (OPS). These days, this material is interesting to be studied as it has a lightweight but sufficiently tough and rough outer surface. In previous studies done in laboratory, OPS was used as alternative coarse aggregate in concrete mix proportion. The designed compressive strength of OPS concrete is in the range of 20-23 MPa. In this research, the authors are interested in studying the crack behaviour of reinforced lightweight concrete beams using OPS replacing natural coarse aggregates. First, pre-treatment of OPS is performed by using hot water at 50-°C as based on previous studies. Second, two samples of identical beam with 15 × 25 × 300 cm3 of dimension were cast and tested under four-point loading using force control hydraulic actuator. Third, crack opening evolution due to flexural test that occurs in OPS lightweight concrete beam is measured, to be precise, on the pure bending area. The crack opening is compared to service limit cracks from building code to find the corresponding loading application.