Quality improvement of oil palm shell (OPS) as coarse aggregate in lightweight concrete

An experimental investigation on the quality improvement of oil palm shell (OPS) as a coarse aggregate in lightweight concrete was conducted using several pre-treatment methods, and the pre-treated OPS aggregates were exposed to severe alkaline, acidic and strong sulphate solutions. Tests conducted on the OPS aggregates were water absorption and aggregate impact value, and tests conducted on OPS concrete were the slump, demoulded density and compressive strength. The PVA solution showed the best performance in quality improvement of OPS aggregate as well as OPS concrete among other pre-treatment methods.