TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MOMBASA

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Building & Civil Engineering Department
B.Sc. in Civil Engineering Project Proposal

Title of Proposal :

InvestigatingthePerformanceofQuarryDust
InReinforcedFineAggregateCeiling
Presented by Erastus Kagwa

Supervisor: Mr. John Chege

ABSTRACT
Common river sand is expensive due to excessive cost of transportation from natural
sources.Large-scale depletion of these resource also creates environmental problems.
A substitute or replacement product has gained popularity in the field of concrete
research in modification of concrete properties by substitution of waste materials.
This project focuses to develop information about the effect of quarry dust particles
on mechanical properties of Fine aggregate ceiling.
The research also seeks to establish the benefits of using quarry dust over pit sand
and investigate properties of Reinforced Fine aggregate ceiling i.e durability and
soundness.

BACKGROUND
The rapidly increasing population worldwide has caused high demand for housing.This has
resulted in more innovations in order to combat increasing demand for the wood products.
The most locally used used conventional ceiling materials are chipboards and soft
boards.The high demand for wood waste as raw materials to other products for example
MDF(Medium Density Fiberboard) has resulted to seeking for alternative materials
including plastic boards, gypsum board and plasterboard.
Reinforced fine aggregate ceiling(plaster board) has been widely used in some parts of
Western Kenya and the Rift valley region as another alternative ceiling materials due to
availability of suitable sand in the area.
Prudent utilization of quarry dust therefore may reduce or eliminate depending on river and
pit sand for RF aggregate ceiling and contribute to environmental sustainability and
ultimately construction of uncontrolled harvesting..

PROBLEMSTATEMENT
Sand usually used in plasterboard is pit sand which is scarce hence expensive
commodity.Dredging river beds leads to problems of banks erosion prompting issue of
restrictions on sand harvesting
Quarry dust can be used effectively as a substitute for river sand for the economic and
environmental benefits to both the government and local community as well.

OBJECTIVES
Mainobjective

To determine if the use of quarry dust can improve the general characteristics of
Reinforced Fine aggregate ceiling.

SpecificObjectives:
1.To investigate and compare the compressive strength of RFA ceiling slab.

2.To investigate and compare the compression, tensile and the flexural behavior of the
mortar mixes experimental tests.

JUSTIFICATION

A well designed ceiling is one of the most pleasing feature of a room.

Whereas conventional ceiling materials like gypsum are suitable for ceiling
construction,they have more often displayed their shortcomings in two aspects:
Installation exposes joints caused by flexing between the panels which give the ceiling a
rugged finish,they are expensive and also take a limited surface finishes .
Referring to the Environmental act (2004) there is need to manage the crushed rock dust
to promote the environmental objectives of reductions of impacts on natural
habitats,reduction of discherge into air and decreasing of wastes and provison of the
information that makes it possible to use the product with minimum negative
environmental effects{M.C Ngugi 2007/2008, CCEE}.

LITERATUREREVIEW
Ceiling in the 19th Century repeated older styles or in less pretenious building used such
new materials as pressed tin.In the more austerely functional buildings of the 20 th
century,ceiling of plaster or acoustic tile,tended to be flat and unadorned .
Economy has worked so great a change in our dwelling that their ceiling are of late
years,little more than miserable naked surfaces of plaster.
The new RFA ceiling system has been developed using locally available materials(quarry
dust,wire mesh,water and cement) to form a thin light weight slab.Many have been used
locally,both in commercial and residential buildings for the last 20 years without any
problems.
According to A.M Neville{1995},the strength of reinforced concrete depends on the
cohesion of the cement paste,on its adhesion to fine and coarse aggregate reinforcing
mesh,and to a certain extent on the strength of aggregate itself.Strength test are not made on
neat cement paste because of difficulties of moulding and testing with a consequent large
variability of results.

LITEREATUREREVIEWCONTD
Quarry rock dust,a residue,tailing or other non-valuable waste materials after the extraction
and processing of rocks to form fine particle less than 4.75mm size.Quarry dust is used
largely as surface finishing materials for Highways and manufacture of hollow blocks.

RFA ceiling is made from cement,sand and water mixed and then spread on the
pretensioned thin galvanised wire mesh attached on square frames of 600*
600mm,450*450mm or 300*300mm.
The mortar is spread evenly on prepared mesh maintaining required ceiling thickness
in order to check final self-weight.No formwork is required hence consistence and
workability of the mix must be good to allow for better placing and minimum waste.
Precast ceiling panels can be produced under controlled room conditions by first
making similar formworks with thin galvanized wire mesh pre-tensioned on sides hence
placed on flat non-porous material.Fresh mortar is spread evenly inside the frame
maintaining the required thickness of ceiling slab.In this method,1.2mm passing grain
size sand is used either pit sand or quarry river sand.

HYPOTHESIS
Quarry dust may contribute to more economical RFA ceiling,Hence can the system be
adoptable in the country?

METHODOLOGY
Experimental study design was employed,Sample from the normal mortar mix and a
couple from the quarry dust to replace sand in the mortar mix were made.They were
run through the tests below.
I)Sieve analysis
Objective: To determine particle size distribution of aggregates by distribution.
II)Bulking of fine aggregate(sand)
Objective: To obtain amount of water to obtain when mixing.
III)Silt content test(sand)
Objective: Routine checking of the supply of fine aggregate from a given source.
IV)Tensile strength test
Objective: Investigate resistance to cracking due to changes in moisture and
temperature

METHODOLOGY
V)Compressive strength test
Objective: To determine the maximum compressive load the mortar carries per unit
area.
VI)Compressive strength test(RFA ceiling)
It is taken as the maximum compressive load it carries per unit load.
300*300mm slab is used to determine the compressive strength..

PROJECT PLANNING
Month2015
Research identification
Proposal writing
Literature review
Mini presentation
Lab Test &data analysis
Documentation
Report writing and
Presentation

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

PROJECT BUDGET
Projectcosting
Collection of samples:-

Kshs5,000.00.

Conducting laboratory tests on samples:-Ksh15,000.00

Documentation and stationary:-

Kshs3,000.00.

Total project cost :-

Kshs23,000.00.