Potential of Scoria, Pumice, and RHA as Supplementary Cementitious Materials for Reducing Setting Time and Improving Early Strength of Pozzolan Blended Composite Cement

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Science and Engineering of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyTanzania has huge deposits of scoria (S-N) and pumice (P-N) minerals that can be used as supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) in cement factories to cut down the cost of cement and its pollution effect to the environment. Besides this, agricultural wastes such as rice husk produce rice husk ash (RHA) having high silica content that can be used with cement to reduce the cost of cement and its impact to environment. Performance indicators of mortar and concrete such as slump, flow, permeability, shrinkage, modulus of rupture, compressive and tensile splitting strength were tested with different proportions of SCMs. It was found out that in addition to cutting the CO 2 emissions, SCMs reduce energy bills and that they confer extra strength and resistance to mortar and concrete. This work only examined the properties of scoria (S-N) and pumice (P-N) and rice husk ash (RHA) as supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) for Portland cement. The investigation considered these materials in binary and ternary module. X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, and pozzolanic activity index (PAI) tests confirmed the suitability of these materials as potential SCMs. Initial and final mean setting times observed for a binary composite cement were 166 and 285 min respectively. The setting times were longer than those of Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) but shorter when compared to Portland pozzolana cement. Characteristic and target mean strengths of 30 and 38.2 MPa were considered. The ultimate mean compressive strengths achieved at 28 days of curing were 42.5, 44.8, and 43.0 MPa for S-N, P-N, and RHA respectively indicating the potentials of these materials as SCMs. Further observation show that, the 28-days maximum compressive strength achieved by the blended cement concrete (with 10% replacement of SCMs) were 44.2 and 43.1 MPa for S-N 10 and P-N 10, respectively. The modulus of rupture decreased with an increase in the amount of S-N. On the other hand with P-N, a maximum of 8.0 MPa at 20% replacement was observed but then dropped to a minimum value of 6.4 MPa at 40% replacement level. This indicated potentially a superior ability of the P-N concrete to endure more sustained stress such as those caused by tremors and earthquakes and impact-related stresses. The residual compressive strength of P-N blended cement concrete samples, after subjection to a high temperatures of 600 ºC, was higher compared to S-N blended cement indicating the superior resistance of P-N to higher temperatures. S-N 10, S-N 20 and S-N 30 gave coefficients of permeability, (K), of 5.2526E-08, 5.20833E-08, and 4.9741E-08 m/s, in that order. This low permeability was attested by their dense microstructure, with implied reduced chemical attack, less carbonation, improved steel protection against corrosion, and enhanced durability of the reinforced concrete. The maximum compressive strength of ternary materials of 53.8 MPa was attained at 10/20% P-N/RHA replacement level. The 28 days Strength Activity Index (SAI) of S-N/RHA blended cement at 30/0, 10/20, 5/25 and 0/30% S-N/RHA were above 75% recommended by ASTM. On the other hand the SAI of P-N/RHA blended cement were higher than the ASTM recommended value at all replacement levels. Therefore, 10% of S-N, P-N or RHA is recommended as the optimum replacement for Portland cement in binary materials and 10/20% P-N/RHA for ternary materials to enhance performance of cement

Measurement of Pozzolanic Activity Index of Scoria, Pumice, and Rice Husk Ash as Potential Supplementary Cementitious Materials for Portland Cement

Research Article published by HindawiThis work investigated the properties of scoria and pumice as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) for Portland cement and compared to those of rice husk ash (RHA). X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, and pozzolanic activity index (PAI) tests confirmed the suitability of these two materials as potential SCMs. Scoria and RHA samples achieved over 75% PAI at 7 days whereas pumice did this after 28 days. Initial and final mean setting times observed for the composite cement blended with these materials were 166 and 285 min, respectively. These setting times are longer than that of ordinary Portland cement but shorter compared to that of common Portland pozzolana cement. The ultimate mean compressive strengths achieved at 28 days of curing were 42.5, 44.8, and 43.0MPa for scoria, pumice, and RHA, respectively, signifying that these materials are good SCMs. Higher fineness yielded higher ultimate mean strength. For instance, a scoria sample with a fineness of 575m2/kg achieved the strength of 52.2MPa after 28 days

Influence of scoria and pumice on key performance indicators of Portland cement concrete

Research Article published by Elsevier Ltd Volume 197, 10 February 2019Cement industries have a huge CO2 signature that can be reduced in an effort to mitigate climate change via precise cement substitution with supplementary cementing materials (SCMs). The substituting materials and their amounts ought not to degrade the key performance indicators of concrete such as slump, flow, permeability, shrinkage, modulus of rupture, compressive, and tensile splitting strength. In this study, the influence of natural scoria (SN) and pumice (PN) binders on the key performance indicators of the fresh and hardened Portland cement (PLC) concrete was successfully examined. The performance indicators were tested at PLC substitution (with SN or PN) levels of 10, 20, 30, and 40% and the results compared to the control (CTRL) made of PLC only. The results show that 10% is the optimum substitution level for both SN and PN. The compressive strength, modulus of rupture, shrinkage, permeability, and thermal stability of the concrete were not compromised at this substitution level. The 28 days modulus of rupture, shrinkage, and compressive strength for SN and PN at 10% substitution were 6.0 and 6.4 MPa; 0.02 and 0.01 mm; 44.2 and 43.1 MPa, respectively. These compared remarkably well with 6.3 MPa modulus of rupture, 0.01 mm shrinkage, and 43.1 MPa compressive strength of the control. Moreover, SN and PN delivered higher % residual compressive strength of 59.2 and 57.8%, correspondingly, after subjecting the concrete to high temperatures of 600 °C, compared to 52.6% for the control. Likewise, the coefficient of permeability (K) for SN (5.2526E−08 m/s) was similar to that of PLC (5.35714E−08 m/s). At substitution levels higher than 10%, more than one key performance indicators were negatively affected. These results show the utility of SN and PN in reducing the amount of cement used in construction and thus the CO2 emission associated with cement industries while at the same time preserving the strength, permeability, thermal and volume stability and hence the durability of the concret