EFFECT OF CARBIDE WASTE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BLENDED CEMENT CONCRETE AGAINST FIRE

Abstract

Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) Concrete deteriorates considerably when exposed to certain aggressive environment such as fire or elevated temperature. The addition of certain materials obtained from agricultural and industrial wastes to OPC concrete could improve its performance in these environments. This paper investigated the effect of Carbide Waste (CW) on the compressive strength of concrete when exposed to fire. This was achieved by partially replacing OPC with 10 percent (%) of CW to produce 150 x 150 x 150 mm 30 concrete cubes. Sample of 100% OPC were also produced which served as the control. The quantities of cement, fine aggregate and coarse aggregate used for the research were obtained through absolute volume method of mix design. Water/cement (w/c) ratio of 0.65 was adopted for the two specimens. The specimens produced were cured in ordinary water for 28 days after which they were heated in a furnace at varying temperatures of 200, 300, 400, 600, and 800oC. Specimens were heated for 2 hours at each testing temperature to achieve the thermal steady state after which their compressive strengths were determined. It was found that after increase in compressive strength of the control specimen up to 300oC, the concrete suffered severe loss in compressive strength with further increase in temperatures up to 800oC. However, the compressive strength of the blended cement concrete increase with increase in temperature up to 500oC and then, decrease with further increase in temperatures. Replacement of OPC by 10% CW increases concrete resistance to fire by 14% of OPC concrete.