Philippine E-Journals

Sawdust as an Alternative Material for Sand in Concrete Mixture

Ralf John F. Aguilar | Rominda M. Batisting | Lennon B. Lemos | Emma Concepcion M. Fuentes

Discipline: Engineering

 

Abstract:

Concrete mixture is absolutely part of the construction industry. However, the pace of development leads to increase in demand for the basic constructions materials like sand which leads to the scarcity of natural resources. This predicament leads the researcher to look for possible substitutes for natural aggregates particularly sand by investigating the potential use of sawdust as alternative for sand as fine aggregate in a concrete mixture. The study determined the strength of concrete mixture with sand and concrete mixture with sawdust in three different curing periods; 7 days, 16 days and 28 days. Experimental method was used by the researchers for it examined and investigated the possibility of using sawdust as a fine aggregate in concrete mixture with both mixtures categorized as Class A mix with the proportions of 1:2:4 of cement, a fine aggregate, and a coarse aggregate respectively. Two sets of mixture with six samples of each for a total of 12 samples were prepared and tested. Findings of the study revealed that the concrete mixture using sawdust is comparable to the compressive strength of concrete mixture using sand as fine aggregate. Thus, the sawdust can be considered as an alternative for sand as fine aggregate.