STRESS ANALYSIS OF STICK REINFORCED GRANITE-PERIWINKLE CONCRETE SLAB UNDER UNIFORMLY DISTRIBUTED LOAD

Ibearugbulem O. M, Ezeh J. C, Inock E. U, Obiekwe M. O, Nwadike A. N

Abstract: This research work aims at providing alternative materials for coarse aggregate and steel reinforcement in concrete slab making in other to enhance affordable housing delivery. The materials were chosen based on their cheap cost and availability compared to the conventional materials. The long haulage distances and costly nature of granite has lead to Periwinkle shells being used in the riverine (Niger-Delta) areas of Nigeria to wholly or partially replace granite in concrete, while Owa stick (Jaundea Pinnata) has been used for decades in reinforcing earthen houses. This paper reports the stress resistance of owa stick reinforced grano-periwinkle concrete slab compared with steel reinforced and plain grano-periwinkle concrete slab when subjected to uniformly distributed load. The mix ratio of 1:2:2 was used for the concrete; the ratio of 1:1 was used for granite and periwinkle shells with a water-cement ratio of 0.5. Concrete cubes were casted and used in testing for compressive strength. Slabs of 500x500x100mm were also used to test for the maximum flexural stress under uniformly distributed load with two sets of reinforcement spacing, 90mm and 150mm. The slabs were simply-supported (ssss) on all the sides. The 28-day compressive strength and density of the concrete was found to be 19.932N/mm2 and 2617.48kg/m3. From this study it can be concluded that owa stick has elastic properties which helps in improving the tensile strength of concrete, though in comparison, steel is still preferred, but the stress resistance of owa stick reinforced concrete slab was more than that of plain concrete with the gain in stress of 25.30% at 90mm c/c and a loss of 16.87% at 150mm c/c. Also, owa stick reinforced slabs had more than 50% flexural stress resistance when compared to steel reinforced slabs. Also, while plain concrete slab failed in brittle, owa stick reinforced concrete did not

Keywords: Periwinkle, granite, aggregate, concrete, owa stick (Jaundea Pinnata), flexural stress, uniformly distributed load (udl).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2014.0304094