Feasibility study of palm oil boiler ash (POBA) as a partial replacement of sand in foamed concrete

Abstract

A study was conducted to explore the effect of palm oil boiler ash (POBA) on foamed concrete by varying the percentage of POBA over sand quantities (0, 4, 8 and 12%). This paper primarily discusses the water absorption test, uniaxial compressive strength, and dry density findings. It indicates that substituting sand with POBA greatly enhances the strength of foamed concrete. When the quantity of POBA was raised up to 12% throughout all curing times, the compressive strength steadily increased in the range of 4.34–13.50 N·mm–2. Furthermore, the dry density of foamed concrete was shown to be directly related to the fraction of POBA in the mixture. The dry density of foamed concrete increases as the amount of POBA increases. Despite this, water absorption shown that increasing POBA increases water absorption percentage in foamed concrete from 7.4 to 10.4%. This is due to the fact that a composition with a high POBA percentage will generate more pores than a mixture with a low POBA percentage.