Coconut shell as lightweight aggregate for manufacturing structural lightweight aggregate concrete

Abstract

Utilization of concrete in construction industry has increased in last decades. Although, concrete has a lot of advantages, it is important to consider its negative impacts on environment. One of that negative impacts is depletion of natural resources. To protect environment and make concrete industry sustainable it is needed to find alternative materials, which can be used in the concrete mixture. Agricultural sector has many wastes which would be proper alternatives in manufacturing sustainable concrete. This study presents experimental test results of a green concrete was made of coconut shell as an alternative for normal coarse aggregate in concrete mixtures for developing a sustainable lightweight aggregate concrete. From several trial mixes using coconut shell lightweight aggregates, it was possible to develop mix proportions for a structural lightweight aggregate concrete with good workability and a 28-dayay compressive strength of 38 MPa and density of 1986 kg/m.