Bonding strength of steel and concrete containing Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) and Expanded Polystyrene (EPS)

The usage of recycled materials in concrete has become popular recently. This paper focuses on a study related to the bonding between steel and concrete containing expanded polystyrene beads (EPS) and palm oil fuel ash (POFA) as replacement material. The EPS were used as fine aggregate replacement, and POFA was used as cement replacement. The replacement percentages for EPS and POFA in the concrete were limited to a range of 0-30% and 0-10%, respectively. Previous studies have identified the potential of POFA and EPS as concrete substances. The typical issue with EPS-containing concrete is its characteristic weakness, which leads to a compromised bond with steel. This occurs because EPS fails to effectively interact with cement, resulting in a weak bond and low compressive strength. Consequently, in this study, POFA is introduced as an addition to enhance the bond strength between EPS-containing concrete and steel. Pull-out tests in this study seem to represent the bonding performance between concrete and steel. The 10% of POFA in concrete seems might improve its performance in terms of compression strength, and bonding between concrete and steel.