Investigating the Utilization of Ground Palm Kernel Shells for Partial Replacement of Cement in Concrete Using Nondestructive Method

The objective of this research is to investigate the utilization of palm kernel shells in ground form (GPK) for partial replacement of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) in concrete by investigating its optimal strength using nondestructive ultrasonic pulse velocity method for both cubic and cylindrical concrete test specimen. In all a total of 135 cubes and 66 cylinders of concrete were prepared. The dimension of the cubic concrete specimens was 150 × 150 × 150 mm and that of the cylindrical specimens were 110 mm and 500 mm diameter and length respectively. The mix design of the GPK shells used as a partial replacement for OPC ranged between 0% and 50% by weight of cement using mix ratio of 1:2:4 with water to cement ratio of 0.8. The concrete specimens were test at curing periods of 7 days, 28 days and 60 days for the cubes and 7 days and 28 days for the cylinders.  Based on the results and the analysis done, it was generally observed in all cases that, as the mix ratio is increased, the ultrasonic pulse velocity, modulus of elasticity and the density decreased and as the curing period increased, these values increased across all the mix ratios. The ultrasonic pulse velocity and the density of the specimens shows that concretes containing GPK “fuel” shells has higher values than those containing GPK ordinary shells. Generally, the density, ultrasonic pulse velocity and the modulus of elasticity of concrete containing GPK shells decrease as the replacement percentage increase.