Effect of Different Coarse Aggregate Sizes on the Strength Characteristics of Laterized Concrete

The high cost of conventional concrete materials is a major factor affecting housing delivery in developing countries such as Nigeria. Since Nigeria is blessed with abundant locally available materials like laterite, researchers have conducted comprehensive studies on the use of laterite to replace river sand partially or fully in the concrete. However, the works did not consider the optimum use of coarse aggregate to possibly improve the strength of the laterized concrete, since it is normally lower than that of normal concrete. The results of the tests showed that workability, density and compressive strength at constant water-cement ratio increase with the increase in the coarse aggregate particle size and also with curing age. As the percentage of laterite increases, there was a reduction in all these characteristics even with the particle size of coarse aggregate reduction due to loss from the aggregate-paste interface zone. Also, when sand was replaced by 25% of laterite, the 19.5mm and 12.5mm coarse aggregate particle sizes gave satisfactory results in terms of workability and compressive strength respectively at 28 days of curing age, compared to normal concrete. However, in case of 50% up to 100% laterite contents, the workability and compressive strength values were very low.