A STUDY OF MUSA PARADISIACA PSEUDO-STEM PITH FLUID AS SET-RETARDING ADMIXTURE IN CEMENT PASTE AND MORTAR

The study undertakes the effect of Musa Paradisiaca Pseudostem Pith Fluid (MPPPF) on cementpaste and mortar. The cement pastes consist of cement, water and MPPPF in the range of 0 to 1%by weight of cement; and tested for consistency and setting times. Cement to sand mix of 1:3 withwater-cement ratio of 0.4 by weight with MPPPF in the range of 0 to 1% by weight of cement wasused for the production of mortar specimens; and properties investigated were compressive andflexural strengths, water absorption, and density. The results revealed that MPPPF delays both theinitial and final setting times of the cement paste. The compressive strength values of the mortarspecimens range between 11.87N/mm^2 at 7 days and 22.84N/mm^2 at 56 days. The highest flexural strength of 3.52N/mm^2 at was attained at 28 days with mortar specimen containing 0.75%MPPPF. The result of water absorption of varying contents of MPPPF was non-significant, whilethe saturated densities of the MPPPF test mortars were higher than those of the reference mortar.The study concluded that the use of MPPPF (up to 0.75%) as set- retarder in cement mortarenhance the structural properties such as compressive strength towards the production of type ‘M’mortar for general application.