Good morning, everyone! Today, we will be proposing our research title.

But first, please allow us to

introduce ourselves. My name is... Our proposed research title is "Abaca Fiber, Sea Shells, and Floral
Foam as an Aggregate in Cementitious Matrix: An Experimental Analysis on Concrete Blocks."

Our topic is all about the use of abaca fiber, sea shells, and floral foam waste as additives in concrete
blocks.

The legal basis of our study is the National Building Code of the Philippines, Section 100102, which states
that the state's policy is to protect life, health, property, and public welfare in accordance with the
principles of environmental management and control, and to that end, it is the purpose of this Code to
provide a framework of minimum standards and requirements for all buildings and structures by
guiding, regulating, and controlling their location, siting, design, quality of materials, construction, use,
occupancy, and maintenance, i.e.

Research Gap

There are many studies pertaining to the use of abaca fiber as an aggregate in cement and even sea
shells as alternative to sand. However, there has been no research that has proposed the use and
combination of abaca fiber, floral foam, and sea shells as an aggregate in cementitious matrix.

So, what problem prompted us to propose such study?

(Statement of the problem)

Nowadays, the manufacturing of cement has become vital in the building sector. Concrete is a
combination of cement, fine and coarse aggregates, and water, which are mixed in a particular
proportion to get the required strength. It is the material that is most used in the whole world after
water, according to what we researched. However, its manufacturing and application process triggers
soil erosion, overheats our community, floods, and fills our dumps, and it also has a negative impact on
the environment and causes an economic crisis. Sand, as part of cement, takes several years to form due
to several agents of weathering. This increase in demand will lead to the depletion of whole lands in the
environment. The rapid extraction of sand from the river beds causes problems like deepening of the
river beds, loss of vegetation on the banks of rivers, and disturbance to aquatic life. That's why we will
use sea shells as a partial alternative to sand since they're just the dead remains of marine organisms.
Floral foam, on the other hand, is also one of the biggest contributors to plastic waste in the industry.
That's why we chose to utilize floral foam waste in making a water-absorbent cement. Aside from the
aforementioned drawbacks, cement is also has become less sturdy. That's why we will make use of
natural fibers, specifically abaca fiber. It has been proven by some researchers that abaca has a strong
fiber; moreover, this type of fiber is only available locally and is plentiful.
( hypothesis)

The use of abaca fiber, sea shells, and floral foam as aggregates makes the concrete blocks more
durable, water-absorbent, and environmentally friendly compared to commercialized concrete.

(Conceptual framework)

The independent variables of our study are abaca fiber, sea shells, and floral foam, whereas our
dependent variable is the cementitious matrix. Our intervening variables are the water, sand, cement,
and gravel.

(Significance of study)

The results of the research are significant as they will provide or contribute added information to the
local government that will provide sufficient knowledge and ideas to use the nature-friendly alternative
in making concrete blocks, to the community that will help the people in the community, especially
those who are having problems with their unsteady concrete blocks in their respective homes, and to
future researchers that will serve as an eye-opener to initiate a more efficient and enhanced
experimentation.

(Objectives)

Thus, this study will gauge the efficacy of abaca fiber, sea shells, and floral foam as aggregates for
constructing a cementitious matrix that is durable, environmentally friendly, and water-absorbent.

We will:

*Audit the overall cost of utilizing the aggregates in the Cementitious matrix.

*Scrutinize the effect of the aggregates on the flexural strength of the Cementitious matrix.

*Gauge the absorbent of water in the cement of the added aggregate.

If our proposed research title is approved, this will be our methodology.

The research design will be true experimental research since we will be manipulating the independent
variables of our study, which are the abaca fiber, sea shells, and floral foam, and we will also be
measuring the dependent variable, which is the cement.

In obtaining abaca fiber... We will be gathering it from one of our members' backyard. We will gather
abaca fiber from one of our members' backyard. We will extract abaca fibers from the trunk of manila
hemp by separating the sheaths using a dagger and pulling them off the trunk by hand. After that, we
would remove the sheath until it reached the inner layer. Tuxying is the process of extracting the fiber
from the leaf sheaths. A specially-made tuxying knife is used to make an incision through the inner and
middle layers of each sheath, close to the base or butt end, to remove the outer layer.

The abaca fibers are then left out to dry naturally in the sun. The estimated time for this process is 3
days.

(Sea shells)

In obtaining sea shells, ...Sea shells will be gathered from shore. We will crush the sea shells into fine
grain as a replacement for sand. We will roll the seashells in a bath towel and pound them using builder
wood.

(Floral Foam)

Floral foam will be gathered from waste in floral shops. We will crumple the floral foam into fine pieces.

Cement Process

The first step is to find a comfortable place where we are going to make hollow blocks.

We will make a one-sided open box with an inner cavity of 150mm (thickness), 200 mm (width), and
300mm (length), which is the standard size for hollow [Link] will Use nails and planks of plywood for
this.

We will prepare the mix of concrete.

The concrete mix is composed of water, cement, abaca fiber, crushed floral foam, and crushed sea
shells. We will pour water until the mixture of concrete is good enough to be poured into the mold.
Then mix the water in the bowl. Use a rod to stir the mixture [Link] mixture of concrete will
be poured into the mold. We will stir the mold so that the mold and concrete settle with each other and
at their extreme ends. At the open face of the mold, we'll use a plank of plywood to scoop up the excess
mixture of concrete. We will then run the plank of plywood across the open surface to level it.

Curing and cubing hollow blocks

The process of curing takes around two weeks to give the hollow blocks the required compression
strength. The hollow block must be kept in the mold for 24 hours for drying. Then it should be put in a
tank of water for curing after removing the hollow block from the mold. The hollow block will be used
for cubing in the final stage. After drying, remove the molds and let them stand on one side for 10 days.

In terms of testing the durability of our cement, we will drop a dumbbell plates onto the cementitious
matrix we made out from the aggregates and we will compare it with the commercialized cementitious
matrix.

In terms of gauging it's water absorbency, we will dry a specimen to a constant weight, weighing it,
immersing it in water for specified amount of time, and weighing it again. The increase in weight as a
percentage of the original weight is expressed as its absorption (in percent).. The average absorption of
the test samples shall not be greater than 5% with no individual unit greater than 7%.(Masons Supply)

This is the end of our research title proposal. Thank you.