COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH EVALUATION OF CONCRETE: A PARADIGMATIC USE OF WASTE (SAWDUST AND COW DUNG)

This research aims to find out the optimum compressive strength of concrete produced with partial replacement of cement with cow dung and fine aggregates with sawdust. T he concrete mix of 1:2:4 was prepared using water/cement ratio of 0.65 with 0%, 2%, 4% and 6%. Sawdust and cow dung were used concurrently as partial replacement for fine aggregate s and cement respectively. The specific gravity values of cement, cow dung, stone dust (fine aggregates) and sawdust are 3.13, 1.33, 3.00 and 1.25 re spectively. The compressive stren gth obtained for different percentages of replacement with cow dung and sawdust are; 8.56N/mm 2 , 14.11N/mm 2 , 17,33N/mm 2 ,18.89N/mm 2 for 0% replacement, 7.56N/mm 2 , 10.89N/mm 2 , 14.22N/mm 2 , 17.55N/mm 2 for 2% replacement, 5.22N/mm 2 , 8.72N/mm 2 , 12.22N/mm 2 , 15.72N/mm 2 for 4% replacement and 3.33N/mm 2 , 7.08N/mm 2 , 10.83N/mm 2 , 14.58N/mm 2 for 6% replacement at 7,14,21 and 28 days respectively . It was also di scovered that as curing age increases, the compressive strength increases and increase i n percentage replacement caused a corresponding decrease in the compressive strength. The Compressive strength value obtained were found to conform to the minimum requirement of 17N/mm 2 for light weight concrete especially when 2% cement and fine aggregat e were replaced with cow dung and sawdust respectively.