Coconut is a multifunctional fruit that has many uses for humans. Not only the fruit, the waste fibres and shells can also be utilized. To maintain the quantity of coconut shell waste, some research is done to examine the feasibility of the coconut shell to be used in construction process.

Gunasekaran Kandaswamy is one of the researchers that examined the feasibility of the coconut shell to be used as a substitute material for coarse aggregate in a concrete. The coconut shell was first cleaned from its fibre and crushed until the size ranged from 4 mm to 20 mm, then it is used for the concrete mix design. After conducting a compressive strength test, it turns out that concrete with coconut as the substitute for the concrete’s coarse aggregate produces a compressive strength up to 20 MPa. The coconut shell concrete is considered to be capable of acting as a beam, column, floor plate, or even foundation. Although this research did not improve the tensile strength of the concrete, this action would minimize the production of waste without reducing the properties of a concrete against its compressive ability.

 

REFERENCES:
K Gunasekaran, PS Kumar, M Lakshmipathy. 2011. Mechanical and bond properties of coconut shell concrete. Journal ofnConstruction and Building Materials, volume 28.
S I Wayan. 2010. Karakteristik Beton Ringan Dengan Menggunakan Tempurung Kelapa Sebagai Bahan Pengganti Agregat Kasar. Jurnal SMARTek, volume 8