FLEXURAL BEHAVIOUR OF PRECAST SLAB MADE OF OPS LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE

Palm oil production is a major agriculture based industry in Malaysia. The palm oil extraction produces large quantities of waste namely fibre, shell and effluent which are usually disposed by incineration or left to rot. The utilization of waste material in places where it is abundant has been an emerging aspect which gives much lower cost of construction. OPS easily achieves a characteristic strength of 30 N/mm2 which is 20% greater than the required design strength of floor slab. Besides that, OPS is a lightweight material that reduces the overall design loads of the construction. The results reported here are from a research project funded by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia that aims to utilise processed Oil Palm Shell (OPS) as aggregate in making OPS concrete precast flooring slabs. Utilising OPS in concrete saves the problem of disposing the solid waste while conserving the natural aggregates that would have been used otherwise. This paper discusses the behaviour of OPS slab precast slab in comparison with sandstone and granite precast slabs. Data presented include the characteristics of deflection, end rotation, strain and cracking behaviour. The flexural behaviour of all the slabs complied with the requirements specified by the current codes of practice. The precast slab with OPS concrete has an added advantage that it is much lighter.