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ESTD Year: 2017 | Impact Factor: 6.9
DOI Prefix: 10.47001/IRJIET
ESTD Year: 2017 | Impact Factor: 6.9
DOI Prefix: 10.47001/IRJIET
Vol 10 No 8 (2026): Volume 10, Issue 8, August 2026 | Pages: 9-28
International Research Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology
OPEN ACCESS | Research Article | Published Date: 07-08-2026
Lightweight concrete (LWC) built from industrial and agricultural residues is increasingly proposed as a route to reduce both the dead load of buildings and the depletion of virgin quarry aggregate. This paper draws together four separate lines of experimental and numerical work (i) polymeric lightweight aggregate manufactured from coal fly ash and epoxy resin, (ii) oil palm shell and palm oil clinker aggregate concrete beams tested to flexural failure, (iii) cold formed steel beam to column connections cast compositely with lightweight aggregate concrete slabs, and (iv) volcanic scoria concrete blended with silica fume and re reads them side by side rather than in isolation. Doing so exposes a gap that none of the four studies addresses alone: there is no shared, quantitative basis on which an engineer, contractor, or regulator can compare the suitability of these very different waste streams for the same structural task. To close that gap, this paper proposes a five stage qualification framework and a Composite Sustainability Performance Index (CSPI) that jointly scores waste derived aggregates on structural performance, waste valorisation potential, and environmental sustainability. Using the reported data, coal fly ash/epoxy aggregate at a 70:30 resin ratio reaches a 28 day compressive strength of 74.60 MPa and a specific gravity of 1668 kg/m3, oil palm shell/clinker concrete achieves a displacement ductility index between 3.16 and 4.67 for reinforcement ratios up to 1.09%, composite cold formed steel connections cast with lightweight slabs gain roughly 20% additional moment resistance from a stiffener plate, and scoria concrete blended with 7% silica fume recovers close to the ultrasonic pulse velocity of normal weight concrete while remaining in the moderate chloride permeability class. Beyond the technical synthesis, the paper discusses the practical, societal, and regulatory obstacles that keep such materials out of mainstream construction, and argues for concrete, actionable changes to procurement codes, building material standards, and undergraduate civil engineering curricula. The paper closes with a future research agenda covering long term durability, life cycle carbon accounting, and standardisation pathways for waste derived structural aggregates.
Lightweight concrete, coal fly ash, epoxy resin, oil palm shell, palm oil clinker, cold formed steel, scoria, silica fume, sustainable construction, waste valorisation, structural ductility, building policy, engineering education.
Dr. Raghuveer Narsing, & Ramesh Chanti Kumar. (2026). Waste Derived Lightweight Concrete for Structural Applications: A Consolidated Review, Cross Study Synthesis, and Policy Roadmap. International Research Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology - IRJIET, 10(8), 9-28. Article DOI https://doi.org/10.47001/IRJIET/2026.108002
This work is licensed under Creative common Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 Internation Licence
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