Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Abstract:
Two-cell hollow sandcrete blocks constitute the dominant wall construction material for modern shelter provision in many African countries. Obviously, the size of the cavity in a block unit would affect its quality, especially its compressive strength. Therefore, the thrust of this paper is the optimisation of cavity sizes in hollow sandcrete blocks. Consequently four different rectangular cavity sizes (117mmx129.5mm; 137.5mm x 150mm; 153mm x 165mm and 168mm x 180.5mm) were introduced into sandcrete block with standard overall dimensions (450mm x 225mm x 225mm), to produce two-cell hollow sandcrete blocks with centre-web to end-web ratios of up to 13.28 used to study the strength pattern of two-cell hollow sandcrete blocks. Sand/cement ratio of 6 and water/cement ratio of 0.7 were used. The blocks were hand compacted and curing was according to Nigerian Industrial Specifications for sandcrete blocks. Analysis of the results showed that there is an optimum combination of cavity volume with centre-web to end-web ratio. This optimum combination is best defined when the as-cast side is the bearing area at test, and the strength evaluated on the basis of effective area

Keywords: hollow sandcrete blocks, apparent strength, effective strength, end-web, centre-web

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