Failure of concrete structures leading to collapse of buildings has initiated various researches on the quality of construction materials. Collapse of buildings resulting to injuries, loss of lives and investments has been largely attributed to use of poor quality concrete ingredients. Information on the effect of silt and clay content and organic impurities present in building sand being supplied in Nairobi County and its environs as well as their effect to the compressive strength of concrete was lacking. The objective of this research was to establish level of silt, clay and organic impurities present in building sand and its effect on compressive strength of concrete. This paper presents the findings on the quality of building sand as sourced from eight supply points in Nairobi County and its environs and the effects of these sand impurities to the compressive strength of concrete. 27 sand samples were tested for silt and clay contents and organic impurities in accordance with BS 882 and ASTM C40 respectively after which 13 sand samples with varying level of impurities were selected for casting of concrete cubes. 150 mm × 150 mm × 150 mm concrete cubes were cast using concrete mix of 1:1.5:3:0.57 (cement:sand:coarse aggregates:water) and were tested for compressive strength at the age of 7, 14 and 28 days. The investigation used cement, coarse aggregates (crushed stones) and water of similar characteristics while sand used had varying levels of impurities and particle shapes and texture. The results of the investigations showed that 86.2% of the sand samples tested exceeded the allowable limit of silt and clay content while 77% exceeded the organic content limit. The level of silt and clay content ranged from 42% to 3.3% for while organic impurities ranged from 0.029 to 0.738 photometric ohms for the un- 256was generated predicting compressive strength varying levels of silt and clay impurities (SCI), and organic impurities (ORG) in sand. This implies that 44% of concrete's compressive strength is contributed by combination of silt and clay content and organic impurities in sand. Other factors such as particle shapes, texture, workability and mode of sand formation also play a key role in determination of concrete strength. It is concluded that sand found in Nairobi County and its environs contain silt and clay content and organic impurities that exceed the allowable limits and these impurities result in significant reduction in concrete's compressive strength. It is recommended that the concrete design mix should always consider the strength reduction due to presence of these impurities to ensure that target strength of the resultant concrete is achieved. Formulation of policies governing monitoring of quality of building sand in Kenya and other developed countries is recommended.
In this study, the effect of iron powder (Fe 2 O 3 ) on the compressive strength, tensile strength, workability, and porosity of the binary blended concrete were experimentally investigated. For this purpose, Portland cement was partially replaced by 1.5%, 2.5%, 3.5%, and 5% by weighing of iron powder. The amount of water-binder-ratio was considered constant. The workability of the fresh composite concrete was determined using cone Abrams method; mechanical properties were determined included compressive and tensile strengths at 7, 14, and 28 days and durability evaluated by water absorption and permeable porosity. It was observed that the compressive and tensile strengths change with the replacement of iron powder by up to 5%. However, the maximum improvement was gained at 2.5 wt% for compressive strength and 1.5 wt% for tensile strength. The workability of the fresh mixtures decreased when iron powder amount increased. It was observed that the porosity decreased respectively by 21.88% and 26.77% at 1.5 wt% and 2.5 wt% replacement. Moreover, this present study shows the importance and benefits to improve concrete properties by using micro-particles materials.
A nonlinear superposition model was developed to assess the load-slip behavior of bolted joints consisting of a single bolt subjected to lateral loading at angles of load to grain. This model characterizes the bolted joint as a pair of orthogonal nonlinear springs aligned parallel and perpendicular to the grain of the wood members. The spring stiffnesses are quantified by a logarithmic or exponential function depending upon whether the connection softens or stiffens with increasing slip. The spring deformations are superimposed to determine the movement of each component of the connection. Deformations of connected members are added vectorially to determine their relative displacement. Spring constant were determined experimentally using metal-to-wood connections. Thick steel side plates were employed to limit the system deformation to the wood component. Wood members were evaluated at angles of load to grain ranging from zero to ninety degrees. Once the spring constants had been determined, the model was executed to predict the load-slip behavior of wood-to-wood connections. These predictions were compared to experimentally obtained load-slip values. The results indicate that the nonlinear superposition concept is a valid approach to predict joint deformation at angles of load to grain.
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