Abstract
USE OF WOOD AS COMPRESSIVE REINFORCEMENT IN CONCRETE
Umeonyiagu, Ikechukwu Etienne
ABSTRACT
A total of forty-two test specimens of wood, pure concrete and concrete-wood cubes of dimensions ? 0.15m x 0.15m x 0.15m were made and tested for their compressive strengths. Six tests were for pure concrete. Another six specimens were for woods of different types sawn ? parallel to the grain and perpendicular to the grain. The remaining thirty specimens were concrete-wood of same external diameter as pure concrete but with different dimensions of woods placed in them. The woods used were Achi, Melina and Mahogany. The surface of the woods were coated with bitumen and sand blasted. Achi wood was the strongest of all, both parallel to the grain and perpendicular to the grain. Using Achi wood to produce concrete-wood cubes with concrete mix ratio of 1:2:4 and water cement ratio of 0.6, it was found that perpendicular to the grain concrete-wood had the highest compressive strength, higher than that of pure concrete even at different ages.
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