Published Paper Details:

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) has many benefits in terms of production and placement compared to traditional concrete namely, elimination of external or internal vibration for compaction, better flowability, workability and pumpability, as well as increased bonding with congested reinforcement. Moreover, the placement of SCC is faster and requires less labour. The appearance (surface finish), mechanical performance and durability of SCC can be considerably better than traditional concrete. Natural fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials have emerged in a wide spectrum of area of the polymer science. The composite produced from these types of materials are low density, low cost, comparable specific properties, and most importantly they are environmental friendly. The composite materials produced from oil palm fibers and commercially available polymers have offered some specific properties that can be comparable to conventional synthetic fiber composite materials. However, these properties are greatly dependent on the compatibility of oil palm fibers and matrix phase with moisture absorption as one of the critical issues that becomes the drawbacks of the oil palm fiber polymer composite materials. Apparently, it greatly affects the physical as well as mechanical properties of the composite materials. Combination of copper slag as fine aggregate in cement mortars, normal concrete and also as aggregates (coarse) in concrete (high strength). As fine aggregate in cement mortar, copper slag provides good interlocking leading to better volumetric and mechanical quality of different mixes. It was reported that about 50% substitution of copper slag in cement mortar increased the compressing strength highly, slightly increased the density and significantly increased the workability. But the addition of higher amount of copper slag resulted in the decrease of strength due to free H2O content increase in the mixture