IJIRST –International Journal for Innovative Research in Science & Technology| Volume 1 | Issue 11 | April 2015 ISSN (online): 2349-6010 All rights reserved by www.ijirst.org 426 Study on Flexural Behavior of Coconut Shell Concrete using Quarry Dust Abinesh R Gunasekaran K PG Student Professor Department of Civil Engineering Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Kattankulathur Campus SRM University Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Kattankulathur Campus SRM University Annadurai R Professor and Head Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Kattankulathur Campus SRM University Abstract This project presents the main results of the works concerning with the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete beam made with coconut shell (CS) and quarry dust and these were analyzed and compared with the conventional concrete with quarry dust. In these beams, sand is fully replaced with quarry dust (Q) by calculating volume of sand and quarry dust. Utilizing CS in concrete production not only solves the problem of disposing this solid waste but also help conserve natural resources‟ total of 12 be ams (6 beams with coconut shell concrete and 6 beams with conventional concrete) with varying reinforcement ratio(0.5 % to 3.89 %) were fabrication and tested. Data presented include the deflection characteristics, cracking behavior, mid span deflection and strains both in compression concrete and tension in reinforcement. From the experimental investigation, it was generally observed that the flexural behavior of coconut shell concrete (CSC) is comparable to that of other type of lightweight concretes and this investigation gives encouraging results for coconut shell (CS) to be used as coarse aggregate in the production of structural lightweight concrete. It was observed that CSC beams, IS 456 can be used to obtain a conservative estimation of the ultimate moment capacity and also provide adequate load factor against failure for reinforcement ratios satisfied all the serviceability requirements as per [IS 456-2000]. The results of concrete compression strain and steel tension strain shows that CSC is able to achieve its full strain capacity under flexural loadings. However, the failure zone of CSC was larger than CC beams. Keywords: coconut shell concrete, flexure, properties, comparison ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I. INTRODUCTION Concrete is the widely used number one structural material in the world today. The demand to make this material lighter has been the subject of study that has challenged scientists and engineers alike. The challenge in making a lightweight concrete is decreasing the density while maintaining strength and without adversely affecting cost. Introducing new aggregates into the mix design is a common way to lower a concrete‟s density. Normal concrete contains four components, cement, crushed stone, river sand and water. The crushed stone and sand are the components that are usually replaced with lightweight aggregates. Lightweight concrete is typically made by incorporating natural or synthetic lightweight aggregates or by entraining air into a concrete mixture. Some of the lightweight aggregates used for lightweight concrete productions are pumice, perlite, expanded clay or vermiculite, coal slag, sintered fly ash, rice husk, straw, sawdust, cork granules, wheat husk, oil palm shell, and coconut shell. The exponential growth rate of population, development of industry and technology, and the growth of social civilization would be considered as the underlying factors that have causes the increased waste production. Recently, the importance of countermeasures to deal with waste materials has been pointed out, because such materials continue to increases in each and every year. The use of alternative aggregate has become necessity for the construction industry because of the economic, environmental and technological benefits derived from their use. The high cost of conventional building materials is a major factor affecting housing delivery in India.It has good potential to use in areas where crushed stones are costly. Statistical data of coconut production shows that, india is producing nearly 27% of total world production and the annual production of coconut is reported to be more than 12 million tons. Conventional concrete produced using conventional aggregate density is around 2400 kg/m 3 to reduce the density of concrete less than 2000Kg/m 3 .The function of the fine aggregate is to assist in producing workability and uniformity in the mixture. The river deposits are the most common source of fine aggregate. Now-a-days the natural river sand has become scarce and very costly. Hence we are forced to think of alternative materials as quarry dust [1].