SOME MECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CONCRETE REINFORCED WITH DRIED WATER HYACINTH AND QUARRY DUST AS FINE AGGREGATES

This paper presents some mechanical properties of concrete reinforced with dry water hyacinth stem and quarry dust as fine aggregates. Fresh water hyacinth stems were collected from Lake Victoria; sun dried for a week and chopped into 3 cm long pieces. Sieve analysis was done for fine and coarse aggregates. Concrete mix designs were done according to Department of Environment (United Kingdom) method. A total of 32 cubes of concrete were cast (16 horizontal orientations of fiber, and 16 vertical orientations of fibers). Dry water hyacinth stems were incorporated during casting of cubes in terms of 0%, 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3% of the volume of cube. Average compressive and split tensile strength tests were performed after 28 days. The results showed concrete composed of horizontal orientation of dry water hyacinth stem fibers had an average optimum tensile strength of 1.5 N/mm2 corresponding to 0.1% replacement. In vertical orientation, there was uniform decrease in tensile strength as the percentage replacement increased. Compressive strengths decreased slightly as the composition of water hyacinth fibers increased for both vertical and horizontal orientations.