Nowadays construction industry continuously looking for new, better and efficient construction material and method due to environmental impact. This research reported the effect of reinforced foamed concrete square hollow beam in order to reduce the effect of the application of concrete materials. Foamed concrete with density of 1600kg/m³ is now widely used as a structural component like slab and wall due to it lighter than the normal concrete. Meantime, it helps in saving cost and reduce the use of formwork. The hollow section also can reduce the dead loads which contribute to seismic effect in high rise buildings. In addition, the Processed Spent Bleaching Earth (PSBE) is an industry waste which possess a good pozzolanic reaction is used as partial cement replacement in order to make it more environmentally friendly. The experimental program consists of casting and testing of foamed concrete beams of size 150 x 200 x 1500 mm with and without square hollow section. To study the flexural behaviour, all beams are tested after 28 days of curing subjected to four-points bending test in order to analyse the effect of the reinforcement of hollow section on the strength, deflection and mode of failure of foamed concrete beam. The performance of reinforced foamed concrete hollow square beam (RHB) under flexural shows better when compared with conventional solid beam (CSB) and hollow square beam without reinforcement (HB). The RHB exhibited greater strength with lesser deflection and cracking.
The environmental impact of cement production has prompted innovative measures to reduce the usage of cement in accordance with the principle of sustainable construction. At the same time, the palm oil industry generates about 2 million tons of spent bleaching earth (SBE) are generated annually with most of it ends up in the landfill, causing environmental degradation. This research focuses on the effect of hollow section on the strength of foamed concrete beam by using processed spent bleaching earth (PSBE) as partial cement replacement. Hollow section of two shapes were implemented at three different locations along the beam specimen. The foamed concrete beams with 30% cement replaced with PSBE were subjected to tensile test at 28 days to observe the effect of hollow section on the maximum load and tensile strength. The deflection of the specimen was compared with theoretical value and the mode of failure was studied. Hollow section of circular and square shape was studied while the locations were on neutral axis, above neutral axis, and below neutral axis. Verification of experiment was conducted using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software, ANSYS. Test result shows that beams with circular hollow section has higher strength than those with circular hollow sections. The best position of hollow was above the neutral axis as to not impact the weak tensile strength of foamed concrete. FEA analysis shows great accuracy in predicting the performance of the specimens.
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