Behaviour of Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) as Partial Material Replacement in Oil Palm Shell (OPS) Reinforced Concrete Beam

Investigation on potential of using palm oil fuel ash (POFA) as part of cement, sand or coarse aggregate replacement in concrete is not new. However, most of the published work has focused on the mechanical properties even though determining the potential of using POFA as a material replacement in oil palm shell (OPS) concrete, especially at the structural level, is required to fully utilize the waste produced from the palm oil industry while also conserving the natural resources needed to produce concrete. Thus, this paper presents the behavior of POFA as a partial material in OPS reinforced concrete beams. In this work, all the gravel is 100% replaced with OPS to produce lightweight aggregate concrete. Then, POFA is used as 20% of cement, sand or OPS replacement in the concrete mixture and cast into cubes and reinforced concrete beams. The beam dimensions cast are 150 mm width, 200 mm height, and 1500 mm long, tested as simply supported under four-point bending test. From the results, POFA as cement replacement in OPS reinforced concrete beam showed higher strength and ductility compared to the control beam, whereas comparable results are obtained from POFA as OPS replacement in the OPS reinforced concrete beam.