Investigating the effect of partial replacement of cement with eggshell powder in concrete production

Description

Abstract Concrete is a structural material obtained from the mixture of cement, aggregates of fine and coarse, water and admixtures if necessary. Cement formally considered as inert of concrete production, it hardens and binds the aggregates and sand together. Finding a substitute for cement, the use of eggshell waste in replacement of cement also helps to minimize the waste in the environment.   Fresh fowl’s eggshell was washed, dried, crushed and ground by mechanical grinding machine. The product generated after grinding was passed through sieve size of 75µm which is the range of particle size of cement (50µm-90µm). Particle size distribution was carried out on both fine and coarse aggregate in accordance with (BS 1377-2:1990), workability test was also carried out on the concrete. Specific gravity was carried out on cement, fine aggregate and cement. Concrete cubes were cast for each replacement (15%& 20%) with varying water cement ratio (W/C) of 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6. and they were cured for 7,14,28 and 56days respectively. Water absorption and consistency test were carried out on conventional and modified concrete (fowl eggshell). The result showed that 15% at 0.4w/c of replacement has the highest water absorption rate of 1.18% and 20% at 0.4w/c of replacement has the lowest water absorption rate of 0.41%.