Palm Kernel Shell as Coarse Aggregate Replacement in Pedestrian Interlocking Brick

Abstract ―​

This paper is based on the importance of recycling agricultural waste to be used as a constituent material to be used in hard landscaping. Pedestrian pavement or interlock is one of the important components in hard landscaping, due to some factors, it is termed as capital intensive material. Some of the contributing factors include coarse aggregate and cement which play a major role in that aspect. The choice of cost reduction lead to selection of material with the similar property with that of coarse aggregate for easy replacement. palm kernel shell is an agricultural waste which for several years has not been properly utilized in the construction industry. Some of the properties of palm kernel shell are determined in the laboratory, this include the compressive strength, the moisture resistivity of the material as well. slump test was carried out in order to determine the fresh property of the concrete. The results show that the average compressive strength of conventional aggregate for the three samples (A, B and C) at 7 days is 14.7N/mm2, while that of 14 days is 16.5N/mm2 and that of 28 days is 13.6N/mm2. Also, the average compressive strength of palm kernel shell for the three samples (A, B and C) at 7 days is 9.8N/mm2, 14 days is 10.3 N/mm2 as well as 28 days is 9.6 N/mm2. The result for moisture resistance test for palm kernel shell sample (A) is 14.8%, and that of (B) is 14.8%. Conventional aggregate sample (A) is 1.7% while that of sample (B) is 1.7%. The study concluded that palm kernel shell is a viable alternative to conventional coarse aggregate in production for pedestrian interlocks.