THE EFFECT OF ALCCOFINE IN COCONUT SHELL CONCRETE AND EXAMINING BOND THROUGH INVERTED METALLURGIC MICROSCOPE

The use of natural resources in concrete production makes environmental fret. One of the possible solutions to save the natural resources is to use different generated solid waste. Coconut shell (CS) is one of the agriculture waste which is been tried recently as coarse aggregate in the production of concrete. The emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) due to cement production is also one of the causes of global warming. Hence, in this study alccofine is used as partial replacement for cement. The alccofine was replaced from 5 to 25% in the increment of 5% both in coconut shell and conventional concrete for the target strength of M20. Compressive strength of all these mixes was conducted at 3, 7, 28, 56, 90, 180 and 365 day. It was observed that 10% replacement of alccofine gives higher strength compared to another percentage level. However, 20% replacement had also achieved the targeted compressive strength, which confirms the better percentage level to replace cement and witness the optimized percentage level. The other properties say, split tensile, flexural and impact strength were done using the optimized level for 3, 7 and 28 days of curing period. The inverted metallurgical microscope (IMM) was used to inspect the interfacial transition zone between aggregates and cement mortar, which confirms and the bonding layer is inversely proportional to its age.