International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology, Volume 6, Issue 1, January-2017 173 ISSN 2278-7763 Copyright © 2017 SciResPub. IJOART Structural Characteristics of Sawdust-Sand-Cement Composite Okoroafor, S.U.,Ibearugbulam, O.M.,Onukwugha, E.R., Anyaogu L., and Adah, E.I. 1,2,4,5 Department of Civil Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria; 3 Department of Civil EngineeringFederal Poly- technic Nekede, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. Email:solomonokoroafor@ymail.com. ABSTRACT This research presents the structural characteristics of sawdust-sand-cement composite. It addresses the problem of absence of structural characteristics of sawdust-sand-cement composite which is a concrete mixture of sawdust, cement and sand. The ma- terials used in the laboratory experiments include: Ordinary Portland Cement, river sand, sawdust, and water. The physical and mechanical characterization tests were performed on the aggregate and sawdust used in this experimental work of which Saw- dust gave values of 733.92kg/m 3 , 0.35, 14%, 1.0, 2.8 for average bulk density, average specific gravity, water absorption, coeffi- cient of curvature (Cc) and uniformity (Cu) respectively; sand gave values of 1564kg/m 3 , 2.65, 1.53, 2.0 for average bulk density, specific gravity, coefficient of curvature (Cc) and uniformity (Cu) respectively. Manual mixing operation was adopted and all sawdust-sand-cement composite ingredients where batched by weight. A total of nine (9) cubes of size 150mm x 150mm x 150mm, nine (9) cylinders of size 150mm x 300mm and nine (9) beams of size 150mm x 150mm x 600mm were produced from mix ratios 0.75:1:1:1, 0.75:1:2:2, and 0.75:1:3:3 for compressive strength test, split tensile strength test and flexural strength test respectively. The average compressive strength for the three (3) mix ratios used are 10.86Mpa, 9.126Mpa and 4.471Mpa respec- tively. The average flexural strength from beams samples for the three (3) mix ratios are 2.32Mpa, 2.09Mpa and 1.89Mpa. The average split tensile strength for three (3) mix ratios are 1.98Mpa, 1.71Mpa and 1.58Mpa. The average static modulus of elasticity for the three mix are 10.08Gpa, 9.84Gpa and 7.35Gpa. The average Poisson’s ratio ranges from 0.18-0.35. The shear modulus ranges from 4.24Mpa – 2.72Mpa. Keywords: Sawdust, sand, cement, composite, compressive strength, flexural strength, static modulus of elasticity, split tensile strength and Poisson’s ratio. 1 INTRODUCTION IJOART