Properties of Laterized Concrete Incorporating Sawdust Ash as A Partial Replacement for Cement

Abstract

Ordinary Portland cement (OPC), the main binder in concrete, is the most expensive component and the major contributor to the embodied carbon of the composite. This necessitates alternative eco-friendly materials such as waste, with comparative binding properties as a part replacement for OPC to have economic and sustainable concrete production with minimal hazardous impact on the environment. This study uses Sawdust Ash (SDA) which is a waste product of the wood milling industry, to replace some proportion of OPC in concrete. To further reduce the cost and negative environmental impact of concrete, laterite was used to replace river sand, and fresh and hardened properties were investigated. The fresh property evaluated in this study is the slump, while the hardened properties investigated are the density and compressive strength. This study showed the viability of successfully incorporating SDA as a partial replacement of OPC and laterite soil to replace the conventional fine aggregate. An acceptable slump and compressive strength can be achieved using 10% SDA and 45% laterite as partial replacement of OPC and river sand, respectively.