UNIVERSITY OF MORATUWA Department of Civil Engineering Moratuwa, Sri Lanka = Tel: [Head of Department ~ 2650422 General — 2650567, 2650568 Fax : 2651216 Your Ref: My Ref : CE/IGA/17/ST/2014/675 Dare + 09" October 2014 Client Mr. Thilak P Jayathunga, Head of Quality Assurance and R&D, International Construction Consortium(Pvt) Ltd., #7, S.De S Jayasinghe Mawatha, Kohuwala, Nugegoda. Subject: Testing of ACOTEC Panels to Determine Following Properties: Load Carrying Capacity of the panel under uniaxial compression ‘Compressive Strength of specimens extracted from ACOTEC Panels, Flexural Strength of panels ‘Water Absorption Shrinkage of ACOTEC Panels. Results: 1. Load Carrying Capacity of the ACOTEC Panel: In order to determine the load carrying capacity of a ACOTEC panel, it is necessary to test a 3 m high panel. Since the maximum height of a panel that can be tested with the available facilities in the laboratory is limited, a panel was cut approximately to a height of 2.4 m and loaded as shown in Figure 1 to find the carying capacity of the panel under uniaxial compression. To obtain uniform load distribution, top and bottom edges were capped with 1:1 cement mortar, The results obtained are given in Table |Table I — Compressive strength of panel Figure 1 Loading arrangement for uniaxial compression ACOTEC Panel dimensions Date of Maximum Load Compressive poem Applied strength LWT (inmm) Testing (kN) (Nimm*) 2433 602 x 91 29/09/2014 299.7 3.47 (with 7 holes of O,,= 52.5 mm) Compressive Strength of Specimens Extracted from ACOTEC Panels: In order to check the crushing strength, five small specimens were cut from ACOTEC Panels. These specimens were capped with 1:1 cement : sand mortar on both the top and bottom sides as in testing of cement blocks for compressive strength. Standard size (717171 mm) mortar cubes were cast to check the mortar strength. After reaching the required strength of mortar, all capped specimens were crushed using the 200Ton compression testing machine. 2.1~2.3 show the block specimens before and after capping, and after failure respectively. Compressive strength results are given in Table 2. Figure 2.1 Specimen cut from panel Figure 2.2 Specimen After capping Figures3. Figure 2.3 Failure pattern Table 2 — Compressive strength results venation | Baal] tea] wi |e | Comores rah 2 a 29/09/2014 | 359 ot 221 5.88 3 29/09/2014 | 358 90 219 828 4 29/09/2014 | 359 1 216 : 6.12 5 2eiogi2014 | 359 | 92 | 220 6.14 age ee er a Flexural Strength of ACOTEC Panels: To determine the flexural strength when failure is parallel to transverse direction, ACOTEC panels were tested under four point loading as shown in Figures 3.1 and Figure 3.2 shows the failure pattern, Table 3 gives the Flexural strengths of these panels. Figure 3.1 Loading arrangement for flexural strength testFigure 3.2 ACOTEC Panel at flexural failure Table 3 ~ Flexural strength of panels Flexural strength Panel No (Ninm?) | | 1 1.08 | 2 0.80 4, Water Absorption and moisture content Water absorption test was carried out in accordance with SLS 855: Part II: 1989. The results ‘obtained for three specimens extracted from two panels are given in Table 4. For the comparison of the specified values for blocks, absorption, kg/m’ was also calculated and included in Table 4. The moisture content of the specimens tested are higher than the maximum specified value given in SLS 855: Part I: 1989 (i.e. 40%) for blocks. However, absorption of the specimens tested are less the maximum specified values given in SLS 855: Part I (i.e. 240 kg/m’), ‘Table 4 — Water absorption and moisture content of specimens Specimen] Size (mm) Water ‘Absorption Moisture content no absorption kg/m’ of net (%) (%) ‘Volume 7 236x91xD01 75 125.0 Ba 2 236*90%198 8.0 132.9 74 3 237*90%198 76 126.0 76.6 * Moisture content, per cent based on maximum possible moisture in the sample5. Drying Shrinkage of ACOTEC Panel A.L5 m long specimen was used to monitor drying shrinkage of a panel in longitudinal and transverse directions using the arrangement shown in Figure 5.1. Variation of shrinkage strain with time is shown in Figure 5.2. Figure 5.1 Setup for Shrinkage monitoring 0.0450 0.0400 0.0350 0.0300 0.0250 0.0200 0.0150 ‘Shrinkage Strain % -@- Longitudinal -@- Transverse 0.0100 0.0050 0.0000 ° 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Time (Days) Figure 5.2 Variation of Drying Shrinkage with Time‘Comments: ‘* The compressive strength results obtained from previous research studies on brickwork column specimens and walls were in the range 1.0 ~ 1.3 N/mm’ depending on the mortar mixes used. The compressive strength of ACOTEC panel tested was 5.47 N/mm? which is very much higher than the strength of normal brick walls. From the previous studies, it was found that flexural strengths for local brickwork were in the range of 0,02 ~ 0.05 N/mm? when the failure is parallel to bed joints and in the range of 0.173 ~ 0.29 N/mm’ when the failure is perpendicular to bed joints. These strength values are relatively low when compared with the flexural strengths of ACOTEC panels tested. Furthermore, flexural strengths for block masonry given in BS 5628: Part I: 1992, are in the range 0.2 ~ 0.25 N/mm* (when failure is parallel to bed joints) and 0.4 ~ 0.6 N/mm? (when failure is perpendicular to bed joints). The ACOTEC panels tested had much higher flexural strength (0.8 & 1.08 N/mm’) than flexural strength of block masonry given in BS 5628: Part L ‘The water absorption of ACOTEC samples tested was in the range of 7.5% ~ 8.0%. According to SLS 39: 1978 specification, for, normal clay bricks (Type 2), the water absorption should not exceed 28%. For blocks, SLS 855 : Part I: 1989 specifies that the absorption should not exceed 240 kg/m’. The absorption of ACOTEC specimens tested was well below this specified value. The moisture content (based on maximum possible moisture in the sample) of the samples tested is higher than the maximum specified value given in SLS 855: Part I: 1989 (i.e. 40%) for blocks. ‘The shrinkage strains of ACOTEC panel at the end of test period (64 days) are in the range of 0.03% ~ 0.039%. According to previous studies, for 100 mm thick blockwork panels constructed with saturated blocks, the maximum shrinkage strain of 0.02 % was reached about 8 - 9 months after construction. For brickwork walls, the maximum shrinkage strain of 0.036 % was recorded after about one year. These results indicate that ACOTEC panel tested is undergoing excessive drying shrinkage when compared with block work and brick ‘work wall panels. This is mainly due to high moisture content of the ACOTEC panel Prof. SMA Nanayakkara Professor $ MA Nanayakkara Head, Department of Civil Engineering University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka