Viability Of Iron Dust as Strengthener To Concrete Hollow Blocks

     Iron dust is a residue from steel fabricator . The disposal of this material is a problem for some steel fabricator , particularly in General Santos City. On the other hand, extraction of aggregates from riverbanks causes widening of riverbanks and lowering of its elevation. Furthermore studies in concrete mixed with iron ore tailings showed greater compresive strength than the conventional one. But none of those studies use concrete hollow block. Hence, to utilize iron dust, partial replacement of sand by iron dust in CHB mixture was done in this study.

     This study focused on the effectiveness of iron dust as strengthener to concrete hollow block . The amount of iron dust replaced to sand was of percentages 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and nine samples for each percentage were made. The proportion used was 0.578 water: 1 cement: 7 sand. The three samples of each were tested using the Universal Testing Machine for its compressive strength considering 7th, 14th, and 28th curing periods.

    The result of testing showed that the compressive strength of the samples did not reach the required minimum strength of CHB which is 500 psi. The 10% amount of iron dust samples showed a lesser compressive strength than the control samples but the 20% and 30% amount of iron dust samples showed a greater compressive strength than the control samples.