4th International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering 2018 (ICACE 2018)

19 –21 December 2018

CUET, Chittagong, Bangladesh
www.cuet.ac.bd

PERFORMANCE STUDY OF CONCRETE BLOCK MADE WITH

WASTE MATERIALS AS PARTIAL REPLACEMENT OF SAND

G. C.Saha& H. Rahman*

Department of Civil Engineering, Dhaka University of Engineering and University

Gazipur, Bangladesh.
Email: [email protected]
*Corresponding Author

ABSTRACT
This study has attempted to reuse of sludge, fly ash and pet granules in making concrete block with
partial replacement of sand. Environmental concern has been raised against uncontrolled extraction of
sand and unplanned disposal of sludge and fly ash. Pet bottles are disposing here and there after using.
These incremental problems may be reduced by partial replacement of sand through sludge, fly ash and
pet granules in making concrete block. These newly adopted concrete blocks can fulfil a demand part of
brick in addition and can save the environment from the air and soil pollutions. This study has been
done in ratio 1:4 (cement and sand), at water cement ratio 0.45, where sand has been replaced by using
sludge, fly ash and pet granules with different percentage such as 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30%. The
mechanical properties of samples such as compressive strength were tested for 28 days. In this
experiment Concrete blocks strength have increased till 60% replacement with 20% sludge, 20% fly ash
and 20% pet granules on sand. The strengths of blocks was decreased when replacement of sand is
above 60%.

Keywords: PET Bottles; Sludge; Fly Ash;

INTRODUCTION
Concrete block is the most used construction material in the industrialized countries. In Society
concrete plays a vital role in the construction of almost everything, it is being used to build schools,
hospitals, apartment blocks, tunnels, dams, pavement and more. The most important ingredients which
are used in building construction that is cement, sand and bricks or concrete blocks. All the materials
are important to build a structure but concrete block are of prime important. Using concrete block in
construction is significantly reduces cost of construction in various ways. To produce brick, hectors of
land, tons of wood and coal are wasted. We can save these natural resources by using concrete block to
build our home, offices, roads and any other construction. Each block can save approximately 25% than
using brick(Benefits of Concrete Blocks | Mir Concrete Products Limited). However, the concrete
production needs natural resources (sand and stone) and cement. On the other hand disposals of waste
materials are also becoming a major waste management problem in earth. In order to reduce the use of
sand and reuse of waste materials, sludge, fly ash and PET granules have been used in this study in
making concrete block.
(Srinivasan et al., 2016) has used sludge in concrete as partial replacement of sand. That study
concluded, Sludge can be used as an effective replacement of fine aggregate and it can be replaced with
20% in concrete. Compressive strength is under controlled with the addition of sludge up to 20%
replacement.(Deo and Pofale, 2015) has used fly ash on partial replacement of sand in concrete. He
concluded that the use of fly ash as partial replacement of sand is an economical solution for making
green and denser concrete. In that study 27% sand was replaced by fly ash. The study was done by
percentage of weight. The compressive and the flexural strength of concrete mixes with partial
replacement of sand by fly ash were found to be 15% higher than conventional concrete. Finally that

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study concluded that fly ash could be very conveniently used as partial replacement of sand in structural
concrete where its proportion and replacement of sand could be efficiently done by using minimum
voids method for higher compressive strength, flexural strength and workability and lower voids at
lower cost.
In recent years, more and more attention has been given to the potential use of waste plastics as
concrete aggregate. S.Vantitha et al., in India used 0%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% waste plastics to
replace the same amount of aggregate for M20 concrete. (Ramadevi and Manju, 2012) also carried out
the experimental investigation on the properties of concrete with plastic PET (bottles) fibers as fine
aggregates. It was found that replacement of fine aggregate with 2% of PET bottles fibers will be
reasonable than other replacement percentage like 4% and 6% as the compression and split tensile
strength reduces gradually.
(Raongjant, Jing and Khamput, 2016) made concrete by replacing 100g, 150g, 200g fine aggregate
with plastics EVA. That study concluded the compressive strength of concrete blocks tended to
decrease with increases in the plastics EVA proportion in concrete.
(Saikia and Brito, 2013) used plastic waste in his study as partial replacement of fine aggregate in
concrete. He concluded compressive strength concrete containing all types of PET aggregate behaves
like in conventional concrete.
Above mentioned in all types of study, waste materials such as sludge, fly ash and plastics or PET
granules have been used singly as partial replacement of sand. That means when sand has been
replaced, it has been replaced only by sludge or fly ash or Plastics. Those three types of waste materials
have not been used yet at a time in replacement of sand in concrete. So in this study an attempt has been
made to investigate the possibility of using PET granules, sludge and fly ash at a time as partial
replacement of sand in concrete block. It has been also tried to save the environment from the impacts
of PET bottles, sludge and fly ash wastes disposing.

METHODOLOGY
Sludge has been collected from unimex textile mills limited gazipur, Bangladesh. Fly ash has been
collected from coal power plant, Boropukuria, Dinajpur, Bangladesh shown in figure.1. PET granules
were collected from Konabari, Gazipur, Bangladesh. Cement and Sand was collected from local
market.
Collected sludge was dewatered in sun for six days. After dewatering it has dried in oven at 105 F.
Unnecessary materials were removed from fly ash, sand and PET granules.
The chemical elements contents in waste materials are written in below. Sludge from waste water
treatment plants contains silicate (SiO2), Alumina (Al2O3 ) and ferric oxide (Fe2O3 (Campbell et al
1975).
PET granule is a material consisting of poly ethylene terephthalate and a wide range of synthetic or
semi synthetic organic compounds that are malleable and so can deform irreversibly in without
breaking out. It is typically organic polymers of high molecular mass and often contains other
substance (York et al., 2016).
Fly ash comprised of very fine particles, the majority of which are glassy sphere. Fly ash contains large
quantities of Silica (SiO2) alumina (Al2O3 ) ferric oxide (Fe2O3 ), ) and various other oxides and alkalis.
To identify the physical properties of waste materials pH of raw materials was determined by pH meter
in DUET laboratory. By using Pycnometer specific gravity was also determined for each raw material.
Existences of Sulphate and chloride contents in raw materials were determined. It was also made a sieve
analysis for raw materials to determine FM for each material.
Volumetric percentage of cement, sand, sludge, fly ash and PET granules were measured according to
combination of material which has shown in table 1. Sand has been partially replaced by sludge, fly ash
and PET granules. Water cement ratio has been controlled at 0.45.
A steel mold size of 10*5*3 inch (shown in figure 2) was used to cast the concrete blocks. All kinds of
aggregate have been mixed by small mixer machine.

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 Fig.1 :Image of collecting fly ash Fig.2: Steel mold size

Table 1: Combination of different sample

Sample cement Sand Sludge Fly ash plastics

C-1 100% 100% 0% 0% 0%

C-2 100% 85% 5% 5% 5%

C-3 100% 70% 10% 10% 10%

C-4 100% 55% 15% 15% 15%

C-5 100% 40% 20% 20% 20%

C-6 100% 25% 25% 25% 25%

C-7 100% 10% 30% 30% 30%

Fresh concrete has been placed on steel mold in required amount in three steps. Every step has
been compacted by small vibrator machine to reduce the void in fresh concrete. After the
blocks formed, specimens were immersed in water for curing for 28 days.
After completing the curing samples were oven dried at 105F and conducted to different tests
in laboratory for performance observation of concrete block made with waste materials. A
sample is being tested shown in figure.3 in universal testing Machine to determine the
compressive strength capacity of sample. To know the water observation capacity, Samples
were oven dried shown in figure.4 after taken submerging in water. Specific gravity of samples
was determined by Archimedes law.

Fig.3: Testing sample in Universal testing machine Fig.4: Sample are being dried in oven

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The physical properties of raw materials were determined in laboratory. Properties have been
mentioned in table.2. pH of sludge and fly ash is near to the safe limits. F.M of PET granules are large
as compared to sand, but it behave as coarse aggregate.
Table 2: physical properties of raw materials

Parameter Unit Cement Sand Fly ash Sludge PET

Granules
pH --- --- --- 6.3 6.70 ---
Specific gravity --- 3.15 2.67 3.70 1.05 1.38

chloride mg --- --- 10 400 ---

Sulphate mg --- --- 4.65 21 ---

F.M --- --- --- 1.8 2.8 4.5

Water Absorption Test

For the water absorption test, the specimens were made to dry in an oven for 24 hour at C
temperature (shown in figure 4). Immediately upon cooling, the specimens were weighed. The
specimens were then emerged in water at agreed upon conditions at 23°C for 24 hours ( According to
ASTM C140 / C140M - 17a Standard Test Methods ). Water absorption of different samples has shown
in figure 5 below.

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percentage of water

12
10
absorption

8
6
4
2
0
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
Percentage of replacing sand by Sludge, Fly
Ash, and PET granules

Figure.5: water absorption capacity vs percentage of replacing sand

Apparent Specific Gravity Test

Apparent specific gravity is the ratio of the weight of a volume of the substance to the weight of an
equal volume of water. The water density is at 4°C. All of the specimens were weighed and made the
results averaged.

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Then it’s were compared with the weight of water of equal volume of specimen to determine the
specific gravity. Every sample’s specific gravity has been shown in figure.6 below.

Fig.6: specific capacity vs percentage of replacing sand by sludge, fly ash, PET granules

Compressive Strength Test

Compressive strength is the most important test for assuring the Engineering quality of a
building material. Specimens were tested in universal testing machine (that has been shown in
figure 7) to determine the compressive strength. The strength of Concrete block did not
significantly changed because of existing fly ash, which have cementing property.
Compressive strength of the concrete blocks with the percentage of replacing sand has been
shown in figure 7 below.

Fig.7: compressive strength vs percentage of replacing sand by sludge, fly ash, PET granules

CONCLUSIONS

 Compressive strength has been increased gradually with increasing the percentage of replacing
materials up to a certain limit and that is 20%. Among the entire sample C-5, exert the maximum
compressive strength 2564 psi that is greater than control specimen (C-1) strength 1727 psi.

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  Specific gravity of every type samples has been lowered gradually as compared to control
specimen. Because specific gravity of sludge, fly ash, and PET granule is low as compared to
sand. So from this method, it can be made lightweight concrete also.
 Maximum water absorption of concrete block is 11.9 % and minimum is 7.79%. That is greater
than control specimen water absorption capacity is increasing with increasing the percentage of
adding sludge, fly ash and PET granules. Water absorption of C-5 specimen is 9.74% where
ASTM C140 allows up to 7% water absorption of concrete.
 Finally this study disclosed that specimen C-5 can be practiced in concrete block making which
expert’s much strength as compared to conventional concrete block and simultaneously it can
save the environment from the impacts of waste materials disposing.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, the authors would like admit the gracious blessings of the almighty Allah, which has enabled them
to carry out the study successfully.
The authors would like to thank his supervisor, Professor Dr. Ganesh Chandra Saha, Department of
Civil Engineering, DUET for the patient guidance, encouragement and advice. I am really extremely
lucky to have a supervisor who cared so much about my work. The authors would also like to thank the
DUET authority and the Department of Civil Engineering for providing the scope and facilities to carry
out this study.

REFERENCES
ASTM C140 / C140M - 17a Standard Test Methods for Sampling and Testing Concrete Masonry Units
and Related Units. Available at: https://www.astm.org/Standards/C140.htm (Accessed: 12 February
2018).

Benefits of Concrete Blocks | Mir Concrete Products Limited. Available at:

http://www.mirconcreteproducts.com/concrete-block/benefits-concrete-blocks (Accessed: 12 February
2018).

Campbell, H. W., Rush, R.J. & Tew, R., (1975). Sludge Dewatering Design
Manual,Burlington,Ontario: Waste water Technology Center.,p. 133.

Deo, S. V and Pofale, A. D. (2015). ‘Parametric Study for Replacement of Sand by Fly Ash for Better
Packing and Internal Curing’, (March), pp. 118–130. doi: 10.4236/ojce.2015.51012.

Ramadevi, K. and Manju, R. (2012). ‘Experimental Investigation on the Properties of Concrete With
Plastic PET (Bottle) Fibres as Fine Aggregates’, Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced
Engineering, 2(6), pp. 42–46.

Raongjant, W., Jing, M. and Khamput, P. (2016). ‘Lightweight Concrete Blocks by Using Waste
Plastic’, 9(43), pp. 449–454.

Saikia, N. and Brito, J. De (2013). ‘Waste Polyethylene Terephthalate as an Aggregate in Concrete’,

16(2), pp. 341–350..

Srinivasan, K. et al. (2016). ‘Replacement of Fine Aggregate Using Sludge in Concrete’, International
Research Journal of Engineering and Technology, 3(5), pp. 1989–1993.

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