EFFICACY OF BASALT AND GRANITE AS COARSE AGGREGATE IN CONCRETE MIXTURE

This present research was on the comparison of the efficacious use of basalt and granite as coarse aggregates in concrete work. In order to obtain the basis for comparison, physical and structural tests were conducted on the different materials of the concrete and the concrete samples respectively. Physical test results revealed that basalt have a specific gravity of 2.8 and 2.5, while granite have a specific gravity of 2.9 and 2.6. In density, basalt have a density of 1554.55kg/m3 while granite had a density of 1463.64kg/m3. Aggregate impact test conducted on both aggregates revealed a percentage of 11.05% for basalt and 12.63% for granite. The following structural tests were carried out: compressive strength tests, flexural and tensile strength test and the comparative results are as follows. Compressive strength for basalt 36.39N/mm2 while 37.16N/mm2 for granite. 24.81N/mm2 tensile strength for basalt while 12.57N/mm2 for granite, 31.83N/mm2 flexural strength for basalt while 27.97N/mm2 for granite. From the above results, it can be deduced that basalt has higher strength properties than granite. Therefore, more suitable for coarse aggregate in achieving higher strength with some quantity of other composition of the concrete mix when compared to granite.