Effect of Fly Ash on the Durability Properties of High Strength Concrete

Utilization of fly ash as a supplementary cementitious material adds sustainability to concrete by reducing the CO2 emission of cement production. The positive effects of fly ash as a partial replacement of cement on the durability of concrete are recognized through numerous researches; however, the extent of improvement depends on the properties of fly ash. In this study, durability properties of high strength concrete utilizing high volume Class F fly ash sourced from Western Australia have been investigated. Concrete mixtures with fly ash as 30% and 40% of total binder wereused to cast the test specimens. The compressive strength, drying shrinkage, sorptivity and rapid chloride permeability of the fly ash and control concrete specimens were determined. The 28-day compressive strength of the concrete mixtures varied from 65 to 85 MPa. The fly ash concrete samples showed less drying shrinkage than the control concrete samples when designed for the same 28-day compressive strength of the control concrete. Inclusion of fly ash reduced sorptivity and chloride ion permeation significantly at 28 days and reduced further at 6 months. In general, incorporation of fly ash as partial replacement of cement improved the durability properties of concrete

Abrasion resistance and compressive strength of unprocessed rice husk ash concrete

This paper investigates the effects of adding natural rice husk ash collected from uncontrolled burning and without previous grinding (NRHA) as cement replacement in concrete. To obtain an adequate particle size, NRHA was mixed with coarse aggregate for a convenient period of time before adding the other components. Compressive strength, water absorption, porosity, and abrasion resistance expressed as weight loss were examined. Test results show that decreasing the particle size through mixing with coarse aggregate improved the compressive strength, reduced the permeability, and increased the abrasion resistance of concrete. By mixing NRHA with aggregate for 8 min, abrasion resistance improved by 10.35 and 23.62% over the control concrete at 28 and 91 days, respectively. Incorporating NRHA in concrete by grinding with coarse aggregate during the mixing process could be suitable for making normal-strength concrete and for applications where abrasion resistance is an important parameter. In addition, using NRHA as a partial replacement cement contributes to the reduction of CO2 emissions due to the production of cement

Effect of mixture proportions on the drying shrinkage and permeation properties of high strength concrete containing class F fly ash

Sustainability of concrete can be improved by using large volume of fly ash as a replacement of cement and by ensuring improved durability of concrete. Durability of concrete containing large volume of class F fly ash is dependent on the design of mixture proportions. This paper presents an experimental study on the effect of mixture proportions on the drying shrinkage and permeation properties of high strength concrete containing large volume local class F fly ash. Concrete mixtures were designed with and without adjustments in the water to binder ratio (w/b) and the total binder content to take into account the incorporation of fly ash up to 40% of total binder. Concretes, in which the mixture proportions were adjusted for fly ash inclusion achieved equivalent strength of the control concrete and showed enhanced properties of drying shrinkage, sorptivity, water permeability and chloride penetration as compared to the control concrete. The improvement of durability properties was less significant when no adjustments were made to the w/b ratio and total binder content. The results show the necessity of the adjustments in mixture proportions of concrete to achieve improved durability properties when using class F fly ash as a cement replacement

Effect of wet curing duration on long-term performance of concrete in tidal zone of marine environment

A proper initial curing is a very simple and inexpensive alternative to improve concrete cover quality and accordingly extend the service life of reinforced concrete structures exposed to aggressive species. A current study investigates the effect of wet curing duration on chloride penetration in plain and blended cement concretes which subjected to tidal exposure condition in south of Iran for 5 years. The results show that wet curing extension preserves concrete against high rate of chloride penetration at early ages and decreases the difference between initial and long-term diffusion coefficients due to improvement of concrete cover quality. But, as the length of exposure period to marine environment increased the effects of initial wet curing became less pronounced. Furthermore, a relationship is developed between wet curing time and diffusion coefficient at early ages and the effect of curing length on time-to-corrosion initiation of concrete is addressed.Peer reviewedCivil and Environmental Engineerin

Characterization of cement-based materials using microwave reflection and transmission measurements

11th International Symposium on Nondestructive Characterization of Materials -- JUN 24-28, 2002 -- BERLIN, GERMANYWOS: 000185641800050The results of measurement of reflection and transmission properties of mortar and concrete specimens at their early stage (1-10 days) obtained by using a simple and an inexpensive measurement system at microwave frequencies (X-band) are presented. Dependencies of the reflection and transmission signals on time, thickness and water-to-cement ratio of the specimens are demonstrated. It is shown that the cement-based materials can be characterized by the amplitudes of reflection and transmission signals together with thickness of the specimens.Fed Inst Mat Res & Testing, Johns Hopkins Univ, Ctr Nondestruct Evaluat, Deutsch Gesell Zerstor Freie Pruf e

The use of a non-standard high calcium fly ash in concrete and its response to accelerated curing

WOS: 000178265000002An experimental work was carried out to investigate the use of a non-standard high calcium fly ash in concrete. The response of the same fly ash to the accelerated curing was also explored. With three different cementitious material contents, a total of 48 concretes were produced. The water/cement ratios were varied from 0.40 to 0.87. Compressive strengths of the moist cured cube specimens cast from the concrete mixtures made with 0%, 15%, 30% and 45% replacement of normal Portland cement with fly ash were measured at 28 days and 3 months. Accelerated compressive strengths were also measured using warm water method and boiling-water method in accordance with the relevant ASTM and Turkish Standards. Despite the fact that the fly ash used was a non-standard, the laboratory test results showed that it could be utilized in concrete production at a replacement level between 15% and 30% by weight basis because fly, ash concrete developed comparable or higher compressive strength than that of corresponding normal Portland cement concrete. The laboratory test results also indicated that the accelerated curing could be used to predict the compressive strength of fly ash concrete with 85% correlation coefficient. The amount of fly ash was found to be immaterial in the strength prediction. The relation between warm-water method and boiling-water method was of linear form with 93% correlation coefficient