Potentiality Of Pulverized Commercially Available Vermiculite As Partial Replacement To Ordinary Portland Cement In Concrete Mix

As the need for concrete continuously increases every year the necessity and demand for the supply of cement also rise significantly. This study aimed to look for an alternative engineering construction material which can be a potential partial replacement to ordinary Portland cement OPC. The entire investigation and experiment was based on the established ASTM standards. The physical properties of pulverized commercially available vermiculite PCAV namely fineness specific gravity and unit weight were determined via laboratory tests and experiments. The cylindrical concrete specimens were designed for 28 MPa and 24 MPa compressive strengths exposed in a curing period of 28 days. The commercially available vermiculite from Ramgo International Corporation was utilized in the study and was pulverized using the available pulverizing equipment. As far as the objectives of the study were concerned the compressive strengths of the samples were determined using the Universal Testing Machine. The results of the experiments and laboratory tests performed showed that only the cylindrical concrete specimen of Class AA 11.53 with a PCAV cement proportion of 10 - 90 attained and exceeded the required strength based on the design compressive strength of 28 MPa. Results also showed that PCAV can be used as a partial replacement to OPC in a concrete mix using PCAV cement proportion of 10 - 90 of Class AA.