Chloride resisting concrete containing rice husk ash and bagasse ash

Abstract

In this paper, the effects of rice husk ash (RHA) and bagasse ash (BA) as cement replacement materials on the chloride resisting properties, important to durability of concrete structures have been studied. RHA and BA have been used up to 30% replacement by weight of cement with fixed water to binder ratio of 0.55. The properties of concrete investigated include water absorption, permeability, sorptivity, resistance to chloride ion penetration in terms of total charge passed in coulombs and chloride diffusion coefficient. The compressive strength of concretes containing RHA and BA were also supplemented. The specimens incorporating RHA or BA, when exposed to chloride solution exhibit significantly lower charge passed value and lesser chloride diffusion for all cement replacement levels (CRL). Overall results indicate that RHA (25-30% CRL) and BA (15-20% CRL) blended concretes showed superior durability properties.