Study the effect of partially replacement sand by waste pistachio shells in cement mortar

The most economic and environmental problems result from burial agricultural waste materials. The main objective of the present investigation is to assess the usefulness of agricultural waste in mortar admixture. These materials are expected to reduce the density of the admixture, and thus producing lightweight mortar.This study aims to study the effect of using pistachio shells as partial replacement of sand on the properties of cement mortar. Furthermore, the effect of density, absorption, and compressive strength of cement mortar were also obtained.Ordinary Portland cement from Kufa Cement Plant was used with a water cement ratio of 0.48 and a mix proportion of 1:3, also six percentages of pistachio shells were used (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60% by weight of fine aggregate).A total number of 84 mortar cubes were casted with 12 cubes for each mixture ratio. From 84 mortar cubes 21 cubes were utilized to calculate the average water absorption and 63 cubes were utilized to calculate the average density and compressive strength.Compressive strength values of the mortar cubes were evaluated at 7, 14, 28?days at different percentage replacement levels obtaining a range of values of 6.78, 8.92 and 14.1?MPa, respectively at 20% replacement.The density values were reduced with the increment in replacement levels until it reached (1.21 and 1) gm/cm³ at 28?days with replacement percentages of (50 and 60%) respectively.Water absorption was increased with the increment in replacement levels and reaching (6.04%) at (60%) replacement level.