INVESTIGATION OF THE STRENGTH CHARACTERISTICS OF LATECRETE MATERIALS

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Department of Engineering

ABSTRACT
A laboratory Investigation of the Strength Characteristics of Latecrete materials was carried out. The laterite used falls under AASHTO soil classification A-7-6 (10) with low plasticity clay (CL) according to the Unified soil classification system. This laterite is within zone four gradation characterized by fine laterite and has kaolinite as its dominant clay mineral. The Experimental programme involves the fabrication of twenty four cubes, six cylinders, and twenty beams of concrete and latecrete materials; and testing them for compressive strength, tensile strength and flexural strength. Tests show that the 28 days compressive strength of concrete cubes was 23.26 N/mm2, while that of latecrete cubes was 8.89 N/mm2. The tensile strength of concrete cylinders was found to be 1.82 N/mm2, while that of latecrete cylinders was 0.67 N/mm2. The Flexural strength recorded for plain concrete beams was 2.89 N/mm2, while plain latecrete beams has a value 1.44 N/mm2. The flexural strength of 13.58 N/mm2 was recorded for the reinforced concrete beams and 7.80 N/mm2 for reinforced latecrete beams, indicating that the flexural strength of latecrete beam is approximately 50% of that of concrete beam specimens. The load-deflection behaviour of the beams are essentially linear within the elastic range of loading and the measured plots of the stress and strain shows that the flexural modulus of the reinforced concrete beams was 3.78 x 105 N/mm2, while that of the reinforced latecrete beams was 4.50 x 105 N/mm2. Also, the flexural modulus of both plain concrete and latecrete beams was the value of 2.70 x 105 N/mm2. Based on the findings of this investigation, it was observed that the behaviour of latecrete is similar to that of concrete; however, the concrete materials showed better strength characteristics than the latecrete materials.