AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY ON THE SUITABILITY OF SESAME PLANT MUCILAGE (SESAMUM INDICUM) AS ADMIXTURES IN CONCRETE

Abstract

Concrete consist of cement, aggregates and water, with any other admixtures added to improve or modify the placing and process of curing or other properties. These days concrete are applicable for extensive purposes. For these reasons, ordinary concrete may fail to exhibit the quality performance required. In such cases, admixtures are used in modifying the properties of ordinary concrete in order to make it more suitable for any situation and applications. This paper presents the experimental result on the explorative study of sesame plant mucilage as an admixture in concrete. The study was conducted through experimental research approach whereby laboratory experiments were carried out and result presented, after which conclusion and recommendation followed. Chemical composition of Sesame mucilage as well as the workability, compressive strength split tensile strength and flexural strength properties of varying percentage of Sesame mucilage at 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% as admixture in concrete and 100% cement concrete of mix ratio 1: 1.84: 2.88 and water-cement ratio of 0.6 were examined and compared. Slump test and compacted factor test was carried out to check the effect of Sesame mucilage on the workability of fresh concrete. The concrete were tested at the curing ages of 7, 14 and 28 days. The results showed that Sesame mucilage has a combined SiO2, Al2O3 and Fe2O3 composition of 25.58%. The result shows that at 28 days all admixture percentage has higher compressive strength than control concrete with 33.2N/mm 2 , 31.3N/mm 2 and 30.8N/mm 2 for 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% percentage admixture respectively, as compared to plain concrete which was 28.0N/mm 2. The result also shows that percentage admixture has higher flexural and split tensile strength than control concrete at all curing ages. The strength test results indicated that Sesame mucilage as admixture in concrete gave better strength compared to control samples. A 1.5% replacement of cement with Sesame mucilage was found convincing and indicate the optimum percentage admixture in concrete mix. However can be used up-to 2.0% admixture level due to its higher strength as compared to the control mix. The research recommends use of Sesame mucilage as an admixture in concrete production.