Investigation into the Behaviour of Polymer-Aggregate Concrete under Compressive Loading Condition

Abstract

The problem of Housing deficit has been a major problem in Nigeria owing to the perennial hike in prices of building materials in which cement, sand and granite form the nucleus of the materials in the built industry; hence the need to research into local available materials that could replace the conventional materials used in concrete production. This paper investigated the behaviour of a polymer concretes using Reprocessed Pure Water Sachet (PWS) as binder, laterite and clay as aggregates in separate mixtures with polymer for possible replacement of conventional cement concrete in some areas of application. The polymer aggregate concretes were prepared by mixing Reprocessed PWS with laterite and clay differently in different polymer-aggregate percentage replacements by volume (50%-50%, 60%-40%, 70%-30%, and 80%-20%) after sieve analysis had been carried out on aggregate samples. Compressive strength test was carried out on all samples after 28 days of air drying. It was discovered that polymer aggregate concrete compresses under a small applied load ranging from an average of 1.13KN to 1.88KN; and the loss in weight/height was alarming as the polymer (Reprocessed PWS) content in the concrete mix increases. It was also discovered that, the more the polymer content the lower the compressive strength in both cases, that is, laterite and clay aggregates but higher values were recorded in laterite but still a far cry from average compressive strength of reinforced concrete. The compressive strength ranged from 3.0N/mm²-1.0N/mm² (50%-50% to 80%-20%) for laterite aggregate and 1.0N/mm²-0.5N/mm² for clay aggregate. However, it was observed that polymer aggregate concretes behaved in such a manner that, under compression process, the samples didn’t break as always in the case of conventional cement concrete but a loss in weight and height were recorded owing to solvent oozing out of samples under compression process.

Keywords: Polymer Concrete (PC), Pure Water Sachet (PWS), Polymer-Aggregate, Sieve analysis, Compressive Strength.