Effects of Rice Husk Ash on the Strength and Durability of Concrete

Abstract

Concrete is a traditional material used in the construction industry for the past one century and it has become indispensable despite its inherent deficiencies. The con crete for future has to satisfiy the conditions of strength and dumbility, to meet the requiremenb of huge con struction works with least maintenance costs. Efforts are made all -round the globe for developing concrete of enhanced life. The dumbility can be determined based upqn its resistance to penetration by extemal agents, resistance to intemal deterioration due to the chemical composition of its ingredients and structural require ments. The production of concrete involves selection of suitable ingredients, their careful proportions and quality control. One of the salient features of concrete with good performance is its strength apart from other things. FIow ever it is generally agreed that high performance concrete need not always be of high strength alone. Mehta P. K. et ul1'2'3 hurrn discussed in detail the principles of produc tion of High Performance Concrete. The strength require ments are not the only necessity, but it could be more resistant to unacceptable rate,of deterioration. fu already mentioned, the main ingredients of performance concrcte are cement, aggregates, water, mineral admixtures which include micro fillers, chemical admixtures such as super plasticizers, rebrders, air entraining agenb etc. A number of investigations have been reported using mineral admixtures such as silica fume, tlyash etc which act as microfillers and thereby the microstructure of the hardened cement material becomes denserand strongerwhich improves its strength durability characteristics. Mehta P.K. and V.M. Malhotral have reported investigations using Rice Husk Ash (RFIA) as a mineral admixture in place of silica fume, and reported it an excellent.replacement of silica fume. Llowever little work is reported in India about the usage of Rice Husk as an admixture of Indian conditions. The present paper highlights some of the investigations car ried out with rice husk ash as a mineral admixture for producing concretes with strength and improved durability