Feasibility Studies on Usage of Agro-Forestry-Based Ash as a Cement Replacement in Concrete

• Author / Creator

  Setayesh Gar, Parisa

• This study is part of a joint Canada-India research program to effect sustainable construction. Alberta generates a significant amount of waste from agricultural- and forest-based industries. Similarly, India has lots of sugar cane bagasse waste. Researchers in both countries want to use these forms of waste in concrete, not only to solve the problem of land filling, but also to use it, if possible, as a supplementary cementing material to reduce the economic and environmental cost of concrete. In the present investigation, a feasibility study is made to examine agro-based ashes as supplementary admixtures in concrete. These agro-based ashes are waste generated from pulp and paper mills, typically consisting of a mixture of hardwood and softwood barks and their fine residues. Also, ash resulting from sugar cane bagasse, which is burnt as fuel in sugar mills, has also been investigated as a pozzolanic admixture, especially for resistance to sustained elevated temperatures. All of the ash samples were first characterized for chemical composition and physical properties, including grain-size distribution, density and chemical composition. Subsequently, the ash was added to concrete as a supplementary cementing material to study the compressive and tensile performance of hardened concrete. With sugar cane bagasse ash, specimens of concrete incorporating different percentages of ash as a mass replacement of Portland cement were subjected to compression and split tensile tests under different temperatures. From the strength point of view, the results are encouraging: for example, when the dosage level of Alberta`s agro-based ashes
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  was as high as 15%, the strength was still seen as promising. The findings strongly endorse that sugar cane bagasse ash imparts resistance to concrete against elevated temperatures and may be used as a supplementary cementing admixture. Results show that these agro-based ashes can be used in normal-strength concrete buildings.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Concrete
  • Agro-Forestry-Based Ash
  • Cement Replacement

• Graduation date

  Spring 2015

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R32805530

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.