1

THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MECHANICAL

PROPERTIES OF COCONUT SHELL AS PARTIAL

REPLACEMENT OF FINE AGGREGATE IN

CONCRETE WITH DIFFERENT CURING METHOD

LAU JETT CHEN

B.ENG (HONS.) CIVIL ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA PAHANG

3

THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF COCONUT

SHELL AS PARTIAL REPLACEMENT OF FINE AGGREGATE IN CONCRETE

WITH DIFFERENT CURING METHOD

LAU JETT CHEN

Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements

for the award of the degree of

B.Eng (Hons) in Civil Engineering

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Earth Resources

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA PAHANG

JANUARY 2017

ii

SUPERVISOR’S DECLARATION

I hereby declare that I have checked this thesis and in our opinion, this thesis is

adequate in terms of scope and quality for the award of the degree of Bachelor of

Engineering (Hons.) Civil Engineering.

Signature :

Name of Supervisor : DR. DOH SHU ING

Position : SENIOR LECTURER

Date : 03 January 2017

iii

STUDENT’S DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the work in this thesis is my own except for quotations and

summaries which have been duly acknowledged. The thesis has not been accepted for

any degree and is not concurrently submitted for award of other degree.

Signature :

Name : LAU JETT CHEN

ID Number : AA13264

Date : 3 January 2017

iv

Dedicated to my parent,

for their devotion and love

make me be who i am today

v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Apart from the efforts of me, the success of this final year project depends

largely on the encouragement and guidelines given by many knowledgeable and

experienced peoples from University Malaysia Pahang. I would like to take this

opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to those people who have been generously

providing their valuable information and experience for the successful completion of

this project.

First of all, I would like to show my greatest appreciation to my supervisor, Dr

Doh Shu Ing. I can’t say thank you all enough for tremendous support and help from

PSM 1 to PSM 2 for my University life. I feel motivated and encouraged every time I

have discussion with Dr Doh on the research problems. Without his encouragement and

guidance this research would not have been materialized. Besides that, I would like to

thanks Dr Doh, for his patience in giving me guidance in project works.

Furthermore, I would like to thank to my final year project presentation’s panel,

Dr Fadzil bin Mat Yahaya and Mr. Khalimi Johan bin Abd Hamid who give suggestion

on my study to improve the objective of my study. In addition I would like to thank to

my friends who helping me on this study. They are Tan Yong Chuah, Tan Chin Sheng,

and Tan Shu Mei. They have given a lot of helping on my study in sharing knowledge

and casting work in laboratory.

Last but not least, I would like to thanks my parent who has been constantly

giving me the support and encouragement every time when I was stressed with the

workloads that are given to me. Without their support, I would not have been able to

complete my final year project with good compliments from my supervisor. I am

grateful and very much appreciated for what they have been given to me.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

SUPERVISOR’S DECLARATION ii

STUDENT’S DECLARATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT v

ABSTRACT vi

ABSTRAK vii

TABLE OF CONTENT viii

LIST OF TABLES xi

LIST OF FIGURES xiii

LIST OF SYMBOLS xv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xvi

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF RESEARCH 1

1.2 Problem Statement 3

1.3 Objective of Study 4

1.4 Scope of Study 5

1.5 Research Significant 5

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction 6

2.2 Concrete 6

2.2.1 Conventional Concrete 7

2.2.2 Lightweight Concrete 7

2.3 Material In Concrete 8

2.3.1 Cement 8

2.3.2 Course Aggregate 11

2.3.3 Fine Aggregates 15

2.2.4 Water 18

ix

2.4 Coconut Waste in Concrete 21

2.4.1 Coconut fiber concrete 21

2.4.2 Coconut Shell concrete 23

2.5 Destructive Test (Mechanical Properties) 27

2.5.1 Compressive Strength Test 27

2.5.2 Flextural Strength Test 28

2.5.3 Splitting Tensile Strength Test 28

2.6 Non Destructive Test (Mechanical Properties) 28

2.6.1 Ultrasonice Pulse Velocity Test 28

2.6.2 Rebound Hammer Test 29

2.7 Concrete Curing 30

2.7.1 The Effect of Different Concrete Curing Method 30

CHAPTER 3 METHADOLOGY

3.1 Introduction 38

3.2 Material 40

3.2.1 Cement 40

3.2.2 Fine Aggregates 41

3.2.3 Coarse Aggregates 42

3.2.4 Water 43

3.2.5 Coconut Shell Powder 43

3.3 Concrete Mixing Ratio 45

3.4 Concrete Casting 45

3.5 Concrete Curing Process 46

3.5.1 Air Dry Curing 46

3.5.2 Environmental Curing 47

3.5.3 Water Curing 48

3.6 Mechanical Properties Testing 49

3.6.1 Conrete Slump Test 49

3.6.2 Compressive Strength Test 51

3.6.3 Flextural Strength Test 52

3.6.4 Splitting Tensile Strength Test 54

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CHAPTER 4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction 56

4.2 Slump Test 57

4.3 Mechanical Properties Test With Different Type of Curing Method 58

4.4 Compressive Strength Test 62

4.5 Flextural Strength Test 67

4.6 Splitting Tensile Test 72

4.7 Correlation of Compressive Strength and Flextural Strength With 3 76

Type of Curing Method

4.8 Correlation of Compressive Strength and Splitting Tensile Strength 78

With 3 Type of Curing Method 78

4.9 Discussion 80

4.10 Summary 81

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Introduction 83

5.2 Conclussion 84

5.3 Recommendation For the Future Study 85

REFFERENCES 86

APPENDIXES

A PHOTO OF LABORATORY PREPARATION 90

xi

LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Title Page

2.1 Mass properties for the mix proportion 9

2.2 Result for compressive strengths test and flexural strength test 10

2.3 Result for compressive strengths test 12

2.4 Result for flexural strength test 12

2.5 Result for flexural strength test 13

2.6 The mix proportion for the concrete mixed 15

2.7 The properties for the fine aggregate 16

2.8 The mix proportion for the concrete mix 16

2.9 The result for the compressive strength test 17

2.10 The mix proportion for the concrete 18

2.11 The result for the compressive test 19

2.12 The result for the splitting tensile test 20

2.13 The mix proportions of the concrete 22

2.14 The result for the flexural strength and compressive strength 22

2.15 The result for the coconut fibre tensile properties 23

2.16 The properties of the concrete mixed designed 25

2.17 The detail for the reinforcement 26

2.18 The detail for the reinforcement 26

2.19 Relationship between the pulse velocity and the concrete quality 29

2.20 The compressive strength result 31

2.21 The result for splitting tensile strength 32

2.22 The cases for the curing method 32

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2.23 The result for the compressive strength test 33

2.24 Chemical properties for the sea water 37

3.1 Properties of the PHOENIX cement 40

3.2 Concrete mix ratio 45

3.3 Concrete mix Needed 45

3.4 Workability of slump 50

4.1 The Result for Slump Test 56

4.2 The Result for slump test 58

4.3 Result for Compressive Strength 63

4.4 Result for Flexural Strength 68

4.5 Result for Splitting Tensile Strength 73

xiii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Title Page

2.1 Compressive strength N/mm2

versus marble aggregate as % of

total coarse aggregate 14

2.2 Compressive strength versus Duration of curing at 80°C 34

2.3 Compressive strength versus Duration of curing at 100°C 35

2.4 Compressive strength versus Duration of curing at 120°C 36

3.1 Flow chart 39

3.2 PHOENIX Cement 41

3.3 Sand 42

3.4 Coarse aggregate 43

3.5 Coconut shell powder 44

3.6 Air dry curing 47

3.7 Environmental Curing 48

3.8 Water curing 49

3.9 Type of slump 50

3.10 Slump Test 51

3.11 Concrete cube 52

3.12 Concrete beam 53

3.13 Concrete cylinder 55

4.1 Slump test 58

4.2 Weather For August 2016 60

4.3 Weather For September 2016 61

4.4 Weather For October 2016 62

4.5 Compressive Strength versus Concrete Age with Water Curing 64

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4.6 Compressive Strength versus Concrete Age with Air Curing 65

4.7 Compressive Strength versus Concrete Age with Environmental

curing 65

4.8 Compressive strength test 66

4.9 Concrete cube after test 67

4.10 Flexural Strength development with Water Curing 69

4.11 Flexural Strength development with Air Curing 70

4.12 Flexural Strength development with Environmental Curing 70

4.13 Flexural strength test 71

4.14 Concrete beam after fail 72

4.15 The splitting tensile strength development with Water Curing 74

4.16 The splitting tensile strength development with Air Curing 75

4.17 The splitting tensile strength development with environment

curing 75

4.18 Splitting tensile strength test 76

4.19 The splitting tensile strength development with water curing 76

4.20 The splitting tensile strength development with air dry curing 77

4.21 The splitting tensile strength development with environment

curing 77

4.22 The splitting tensile strength development with water curing 78

4.23 The splitting tensile strength development with air dry curing 79

4.24 The splitting tensile strength development with environment

curing 79

xv

LIST OF SYMBOLS

% Percentage

Φ Diameter

°C Celsius

P Maximum load that carried by beam specimens (N)

L Length of beam span (mm)

b Average width of specimen at the fracture (mm)

d Average depth of specimen at the fracture (mm)

σ Splitting tensile strength (N/mm2)

F Maximum load carried by cylindrical specimen (N)

Length of the cylindrical specimen (mm)

D Cross-sectional diameter of cylindrical specimen (mm)

R2 Coefficient of determination

xvi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

RM Ringgit Malaysia

BS British Standard

FA Fine Aggregate

CA Coarse Aggregate

w/c Water Cement ratio

mm Millimetre

N/mm2 Newton per millimetre square

Kg Kilogram

N Newton

MPa Mega Pascal

EN European Standard

CSC Coconut Shell Concrete

WC Water curing

AC Air dry curing

EC Environmental Curing

No Number

CaO Calcium oxide

NaOH Sodium Hydroxide

Na2O Sodium Oxide

OPC Ordinary Portland cement

CS Coconut Shell

ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials

IS Indian standard