Impact Resistance of Sustainable Oil Palm Shell Light Weight Rubbercrete Reinforced with Wire Mesh

摘要

This paper investigates the impact performance of lightweight oil palm shells rubbercrete (OPSRC) slab reinforced with wire mesh against wire mesh spacing and slab thickness. Slabs of 300mm × 300mm size with various thickness were casted with 1 mm diameter wire mesh with varied spacing of 20 mm, 40 mm and 50 mm. The mix design for OPS: cement ratio of 0.2 with rubber crump: cement ratio of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3. A drop-weight test rig impact with a steel ball weight of 1.25 kg was used in the research. A total of 36 samples were casted with a mortar grade of 28 N/mm~2. The mix design for OPS:cement (OPS:C) ratio of 0.2 with rubber crump: cement ratio of 0.1 produces best compressive strength of 28.1 N/mm~2 for the lightweight requirement. A comparison between mesh spacing indicated that wire mesh 20 mm spacing for 40 mm thick slab produces better ultimate crack resistance performance by 3.97 times and 9.34 times than 40 mm and 50 mm spacing respectively and 10.66 times against the control sample without wire mesh. An energy absorption for 40mm slab with 20 mm spacing wire mesh produces better ultimate crack resistance performance by 4.99 times and 7.68 times than 40 mm and 50 mm spacing respectively and 8.20 times against the control sample without wire mesh. The 40 mm thick slab with a wire mesh spacing of 20 mm has a threshold values of 594 J and 228 N/mm~2 for an optimal performance in energy absorption and crack resistance, respectively. The use of OPSRC with wire mesh has increased its impact performance that can be utilized as a wall panel system partition.