Influence of Sawdust as an Aggregate in the Production of Interlocking Pavers

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the effect of incorporating sawdust into the production of interlocking pavers. Sawdust, stone dust, cement and sharp-sand were combined in different mixing ratios of 2:4:2:0, 2:3:2:1, 2:2:2:2, 3:1:2:2 and 0:3:2:3 respectively with five replicates of each treatment. The interlocking pavers produced were tested for weight, density, hardness, compressive and impact strength. The Analysis of Variance was conducted to test the significance of the strength properties of the pavers produced. The results showed that pavers produced with mixing ratio 0:3:2:3 has the highest mean density and mean compressive strength at 1.58kg/m3 and 4.72N/mm2 respectively, closely followed by ratio 2:2:2:2 which has the highest mean impact strength at 4.39J, compressive strength of 3.26N/mm2 , hardness of 1.70kg and mean density of 1.20kg/m3 . However there is no significant difference in the interlocking pavers’ degree of resistance to abrasion (hardness). It can be concluded that optimum replacement of aggregates exists in ratio 2:2:2:2 where 25% of sawdust can be utilized in each unit of interlocking paver.

Keywords

• compressive strength
• density
• hardness
• interlocking pavers
• sawdust