The Use of Polystyrene as Substitute of Sand in Pontoon Concrete N. Manap, J. S. Wong and N. S. Syahrom Department of Construction Management, Faculty of Technology Management and Business, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia *padzliha@uthm.edu.my

Outline Introduction Methodology Results Conclusion

1 Introduction The construction industry is growing over the years, therefore in order to fulfil the demand, new land need to be opened and developed to provide spaces for building and facilities. However, this could be hindered by insufficient land issues. One of the solutions is to design pontoon type concrete structure. The pontoon type concrete structure is a type of concrete structure that allows any types of building floats on the water.

The objectives for this research are :- 1.0 To determine the compressive strength of pontoon type concrete made partially from polystyrene; and 2.0 To compare the compressive strength between pontoon types concrete made partially from polystyrene with M20 mix concrete.

2 Methodology

2.1 Concrete Mixture Design Eighteen concrete cube were produced which six of it made from 25% of polystyrene as substitute for sand; six of it made from 50% of polystyrene as substitute for sand and the rest of the cubes were made from 75% of polystyrene as substitute for sand. The cement used was Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) which manufactured locally; the water used is obtain from pipe water; the fine aggregate and course aggregate used was obtained from a nearby quarry; polystyrene used was recyclable. A small capacity of concrete mixer was used in the experiment as only a small amount of concrete needed to cast the specimens. The concrete was mixed using concrete mixer. Ready mix concrete was poured carefully into the formwork of test cube with dimension 100mm x 100mm x 100mm. Cube test was carried out once the cube being removed from the formwork. The cube specimens were cured in a water tank and compression test were conducted on 7th days and 28th days after casting. A total numbers of 18 cube specimens were tested for 7th and 28th days. The compressive strength of the sample was recorded and presented in graphs. The collected data will be compared against the targeted value, which is M20 mix of concrete. The type of M20 mix concrete will give 20N/mm2 compressive strength after 28 days curing process. Basically, after curing period of 7 days, the concrete should achieve around 65%-70% of the M20 mix concrete strength.

2.2 Pontoon Infill Design * This poster was prepared for Concrete Pontoon Competition 2015

3 Results

3.1 Strength of concrete made from 25% of sand replaced with polystyrene Figure 3.1: Strength of concrete made with replacing 25% - 7 Days Curing. Figure 3.2: Strength of concrete made with replacing 25% - 28 Days Curing.

3.2 Strength of concrete made from 50% of sand replaced with polystyrene Figure 3.3: Strength of concrete made with replacing 50% - 7 Days Curing. Figure 3.4: Strength of concrete made with replacing 50% - 28 Days Curing.

3.3 Strength of soncrete made from 75% of sand replace with polystyrene Figure 3.6: Strength of concrete made with replacing 75% - 28 Days Curing. Figure 3.5: Strength of concrete made with replacing 75% - 7 Days Curing.

3.4 Comparison of Strength of Concrete with sand replaced with polystyrene Figure 3.7: Strength of concrete made with polystyrene as substitute for sand

4 Conclusion A conclusion can be made that the increasing of the proportional of polystyrene replaced with course aggregate in the concrete mixture will directly decreased the compressive strength of the concrete cube. It can also be concluded that the samples recorded shows the strength of concrete made from polystyrene were lesser than normal concrete (M20 mix concrete). The result shows the strength of concrete made with 25% of course aggregate replaced with polystyrene was the only sample that almost achieved the targeted value as 28 days curing period. The strength of the samples recorded an average of 19.3 N/mm2 which was slightly weaker than normal concrete after 28 days curing process. The concrete made from polystyrene could be used for pontoon concrete for non-structural application. This result is significant for the construction industry as it produces new sustainable material for construction industry.

THANK YOU!