MORTAR

This study is set out to evaluate the suitability of three Nigerian sand types, river, quarry, and coastal for mortar production, focusing on their impact on compressive strength and material properties, particularly the chloride content in coastal sand. The aim is to provide standardized data on local aggregates to enhance construction quality and sustainability in Nigeria, addressing the current lack of such data. A laboratory-based experimental design was conducted, employing standard methods to ensure reliability and repeatability. Six 50-mm mortar cubes per sand type were cast, cured, and tested for compressive strength at 7 and 28 days using a calibrated compression testing machine, following international standards (e.g., ASTM C109). The physical properties (e.g., particle size distribution, shape) and chemical properties (e.g., chloride content in coastal sand) of each sand type were analyzed using standard laboratory techniques, such as sieve analysis and chemical titration. All procedures were repeated to ensure consistency, with results analyzed at a 95% confidence level to assess their reliability.Coastal sand exhibited the highest compressive strength due to its well-graded particles, and low chloride content because it was desalinated, followed by quarry sand with slightly lower strength due to possible dust or angularity issues. River sand showed the lowest strength due to residual impurities, and grading which affected mortar integrity. The analysis identified the optimal sand type for mortar production and provided insights into the influence of material properties, with final data presented to determine statistical significance at the 95% conf dence level. Overall, the study aims to inform standardized guidelines for aggregate use in Nigeria, promoting cost effective and sustainable construction practices.

All over Nigeria as well as to the overseas the fuel oils as well as crude oils are transported through distribution pipes, tankers cargo ships. Although the processes are well laid out to avoid leakages of pipes, accidents of service tankers these events still happens on a regular bases especially in the niger delta region of the country where pipe vandalism due to oil bunkery is on the rise. All these processes leads to the leakages of fuel oils e.g kerosene which eventually settles on coastal waters. The leaked oil products would result in contaminating the water which are used in the concrete mortar and the sandcrete industry which are the cement dependent industry. In this study, the effect of water contaminated with kerosene on the compressive strength of conventional normal ordinary Portland cement has been evaluated in various exposure conditions. Kerosene (0, 2, 4 and 6%) by weight of water) was used to contaminate water to prepare cement mortar cubes specimens. A number of nine uncontaminated samples were prepared with fresh water. A number of nine samples each were prepared with contaminated water at 2%, 4%, 6% Kerosene replacement. Three samples each of percentage replacement and three uncontaminated samples were crushed at the age of three days, seven days and 28 days of curing. From the results gotten the maximum reduction in the compressive strength of 9.21% occurred at the six percentage contamination at the age of seven days. From results obtained it was seen that as the percentage of contamination increase the compressive strength decreased.