Surface Chemistry Elucidation on Effect of Fruit Garbage Effective Microorganisms Product in Enhancing Fresh and Hardened Properties of Concrete

This study assessed and elucidated the influence of fruit garbage effective microorganisms’ liquid product in improving the strength and other properties of concrete in terms of surface chemistry when added to concrete as partial replacement of mixing water. One control specimen was made along with four different mixes of 3, 5, 10 and 15% of the locally made liquid bio-product as replacement of the required mixing water during the concrete production. The experiments conducted on both control and liquid bio-product blended concretes were Proctor penetration test for setting time, workability and slump test for compressive strength. The results of the tests indicated that the locally made effective microorganisms’ liquid product exerted retarding effect on the setting time of the blended concretes, as well as enhanced their workability. The result further indicated that, amongst all the locally made liquid bio-product blended concretes, the concrete specimen with 3% content possessed the highest compressive strength of 29.8N/mm2 and 35.5N/mm2 at 28 and 56 curing days, respectively. All these enhanced concrete properties were influenced by changing the surface hydration behaviour of cement in the concrete mixture, which varied widely upon addition of liquid bio-product at different percentage contents. Therefore, the addition of effective microorganisms’ liquid product in the concrete mixture showed promising performance and thus, can be used as a low-cost and environmentally friendly admixture in the design of concrete. Keywords: Effective Microorganisms, concrete, Compressive strength, workability, setting time DOI: 10.7176/CER/11-6-04 Publication date:July 31st 201