Properties of sustainable lightweight pervious concrete containing oil palm kernel shell as coarse aggregate

Abstract

Today, pervious concrete is one of the best materials used in sustainable drainage system. Due to the limitations of raw materials, the use of waste materials in concrete is able to reduce the negative impacts of concrete towards the environment. Therefore, this study presents the development of a sustainable lightweight pervious concrete by replacing natural coarse aggregate sized 6.30–9.50 mm with waste material from palm oil industry sized 4.75–6.30 mm and 6.30–9.50 mm. For this purpose, limestone was partially replaced (from 25 to 75% by mass) with oil palm kernel shell (OPKS) to produce sustainable lightweight pervious concrete. Properties, including both fresh and hardened density and void content, compressive and tensile strength as well as permeability were discussed. The results indicated that it is possible to produce sustainable lightweight pervious concrete by incorporating lightweight waste material from the palm oil industry. Results also showed that the kind of concrete produced is suitable for use in light traffic roads and parking lots. Furthermore, in this research, pervious concrete containing the OPKS showed high water permeability, which varies from 4 to 16 mm/s, in addition to acceptable compressive strength, ranging from 6 to 12 MPa.