A Design of Slab-on-Fill Concrete Using Pulverized Green Mussel Shells for Residential Buildings

The steadily increasing demand for cement has led to the development of new materials for modified cement relying on renewable resources. This is coupled with the adverse effects of cement production to the environment. Sea shells is found to contain similar content to that of hydraulic cement. On top of this, sea shells particularly green mussels contribute much to the local wastes as very few percentage is used for recycling. This research intends to study the potential of pulverized green mussel shells as a partial cement replacement. Its purpose is to design a concrete with modified cement to be applied specifically for slabs of a residential building. This study promotes the use of renewable construction materials and the reduction of the wastes from marine sea shell products. Various percentages of pulverized green mussel shells (4%, 8%, and 12%) were used to partially replace cement in the concrete mixture each having three curing periods: 7, 14, and 28 days. From the testing and evaluation, it showed that the design mix with 4% PMS obtained the highest 28 days compressive strength of about 24.61 MPa based on the result of the compressive strength test. The said design mix had a slump of 4.6 cm and a water absorption rate of 1.17%. This design mixture was then used to produce the slab prototype that is found to be 1.13% cheaper than the conventional slab with the same dimensions.