Utilizing Citrullus lanatus (Watermelon) Rind Extract to Reinforce Cement

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, houses are made up of concrete because of its risk-less when it comes to disasters, yet they may have cracks in a long time. For the improvement of the cement, this study focused on the potential of the watermelon rind as an eco-friendly and safe cement reinforcer. The present research extremely aimed at the examination of utilized watermelon rind to reinforce the cement, whether it is comparable to the commercial ones or not.

METHODS

This study used an experimental research design for the strength of two types of cement. The procedure of the study involved authentication, gathering of materials, extraction, and testing. We used improvised compression stress consisting of the block of cement, wood, and a tricycle for the testing phase. We used a Likert scale as a rating for the appearance and odor of the cement in response to 5 different people. We used t-test of independent samples because the two variables, namely the reinforced cement and the commercial cement, do not influence each other.

RESULTS

The results are that the strength of the reinforced cement had a mean of 17, while the commercial one had a mean of 15.33. With the calculated t-value of 2.5 compared to 3.18 as the critical value, it is concluded the there is no significant difference between the two types of cement. For the appearance, a mean of 3.6 for both types of cement was obtained. Due to this, it had been concluded that there is no significant difference between two types of cement (0 as calculated t vs. 2.45 as the critical value.) For the odor, we got a mean of 2.4 for the reinforced cement and 4 for the commercial cement. With the calculated t-value of -4 and the critical value of 2.61, it is concluded that there is a significant difference between the two types of cement but in favor of the commercial one.

DISCUSSIONS

Based on the results obtained, we found out that the extract does not strengthen the commercial cement, acceptable in terms of its appearance but unacceptable for the odor of the reinforced cement. This study made and used only improvised compression stress, so it is recommended for the future researchers to used constant compression stress to become their research study more reliable than that we made.