Studying the influence of specimen preparation method and test specimen size on the compressive strength of hollows wall panel concrete used coal ashes of thermal power plants as aggregate

Abstract

Currently, precast concrete hollow wall panels are being used popularly in civil and industrial construction projects because they have light weight and good load bearing capacity. Research on using ash and slag from thermal power plants to produce those wall panels helps reduce the exploitation of natural aggregate as well as consuming thermal power plant waste to help protect the environment. This article presents the influence of specimen creation methods and test specimen sizes on the compressive strength of concrete hollow wall panels using thermoelectric ash and slag aggregates to replace natural aggregates. The experimental results show that the compressive strength of the samples cut from the hollow wall panels with dimensions of 100×100×100 has lower compressive strength than that of the 40×40×160 mm samples made in the laboratory using the static pressing method and the 150×150×150 mm samples made by vibration-pressing. Meanwhile, the cylinder samples made in the laboratory using the static pressing method with dimensions of 71.4×143 mm has the lowest compressive strength (only approximately 75-80% compared to the 150×150×150 mm samples).