Performance of recycled aggregate concrete with rice husk ash as cement binder

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2020.103533Get rights and content

Abstract

This research aims to utilize rice husk ash as a cementitious materials in recycled aggregate concrete (RAC). Rice husk ash was ground until the particles remained on a No. 325 sieve were 4.6%wt. Then, the ash was used to partially replace cement at 20 to 50%wt of binder to cast concrete. The compressive strength, steel corrosion, and chloride penetration depth by the impressed voltage method of RAC were examined. The results revealed that the replacement of 20% of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) by ground rice husk ash (GRHA) enhances the compressive strength of the RAC to be greater than the RAC without GRHA at 60 days. Concrete with GRHA at 20 to 50%wt of binder significantly improved the steel corrosion and chloride resistance of the RAC. The utilization of GRHA at 50% to replace OPC gave the highest chloride penetration resistance and produced the lowest steel corrosion of the RAC. Although, the RAC with GRHA had less compressive strength than CT concrete, the concrete provided a positive effect of increasing the resistance of chloride penetration and lowering steel corrosion.

Introduction

The demolition of buildings and structures is an important part of construction projects because the old building must be demolished or re-built. The result of this process is a large amount of demolition waste concrete. Moreover, natural disasters, such as earthquakes and tsunamis have resulted in a huge amount of waste concrete. Demolition waste concretes can be recycled to improve the environmental conditions and reduce disposal in landfills. The demolition waste concrete is crushed to be used as an aggregate for producing the new concrete. However, weak and high porosity of recycled aggregate, which is poorer than crushed limestone [[1], [2], [3], [4], [5]], results in a lower quality concrete, including lower strengths and durability of the recycled aggregate concrete (RAC). Lima et al. [6] indicated that increasing the percentage of recycled aggregates in the concrete mixture resulted in a reduction in the splitting strength, compressive strength, and bond strength between the concrete and reinforcing steel bars. Similarly, Katz [7] reported that concrete produced with natural aggregate was stronger than concrete made from 100% recycled aggregate at the same w/c ratio, which resulted in decreased a compressive strength, flexural strength, and splitting tensite strength. Additionally, the bond strength of deformed steel bar embedded in concrete containing recycled aggregate tends to decrease with the increasing recycled aggregate replacement levels [8]. Experimental results by Wainwright et al. [9] reported that the quality of the recycled aggregates, which obtain from the old concrete, are derived influences the porosity more than the target strength of the resulting concrete. Kou et al. [10] and Limbachiya et al. [11] observed that the durability of concrete in terms of chloride penetration reduced with increased recycled concrete aggregate content. Similarly, Evangelista and de Brito [12] indicated that the chloride diffusion and water permeability increased when the replacement volumes of natural fine aggregate by recycled fine aggregate was increased. Furthermore, Srubar [13] found that the increase in replacement volumes of the recycled aggregate resulted in acceleration of the time to cracking for reinforced RAC exposed to chloride solution. As reported in the literatures, it is easy for the embedded steel of RAC be corroded, which results in damage to the concrete structure.

Pozzolanic material is one of the most widely used materials to partially replace ordinary Portland cement (OPC) in concrete and can be improved the quality and durability properties of concrete. Likewise, rice husk ash (RHA), a residue obtained from the combustion of rice husk for thermal power plants, ground to have high fineness, has been used as a binder in concrete [[14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20]]. Ganesan et al. [21] showed that the presence of RHA in concrete increases the compressive strength to be equal to that of conventional concrete. The mortar with rice husk ash is of good quality with diminished porosity, increased sulfate resistance, and improved chloride penetration resistance [22,23]. Chatveera and Lertwattanaruk [24] reported that black rice husk ash could improve the durability of concrete immersed in a hydrochloric and sulfuric acid environment and also reduced the autogenous shrinkage of concrete with increasing replacement of BRHA. Furthermore, the result of the accelerated corrosion tests by Ferraro and Nanni [25] showed that the use of white RHA increased the corrosion resistance of embedded steel bar in concrete. Similarly, Chao-Lung et al. [26] reported that GRHA up to 20% to replace OPC has a positive impact on the durability properties and strength of concrete.

From the above literatures, it is observed that a highly reactive pozzolanic which was due to small particle of RHA could improve the properties of concrete. Therefore, in this research, RHA was ground to have high fineness and was used to partially substitute OPC at 20 to 50%wt of cementitious materials to improve the quality of concrete containing recycled aggregate. The chloride penetration depth, steel corrosion resistance, and compressive strength of the concrete with a mixture of coarse and fine recycled aggregates were examined.

Section snippets

Cementitious materials

Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) conforming to ASTM C150 [27] was used to cast the conventional concrete and RAC. OPC had a specific gravity (SG) of 3.15 (as shown in Table 1). While as, RHA used in this study was a by-product obtained from burning rich husk at a thermal power plant in Suphan Buri Province, Thailand, producing approximately 17,000 tons of RHA per year. The original rice husk ash (ORHA) had SG of 1.89 and the particles remained on a No. 325 sieve (opening Size 45 μm) of 76.60%wt.

Compressive strength

Table 5 shows the normalized compressive strength and the compressive strength of the RACs compared to conventional concrete (CT concrete). The results of the experiment showed that RA concrete (use 100% river sand and 100% R-CA) had a greater compressive strength than RB concrete (use 100% R-FA and 100% R-CA) at the same tested age. Moreover, the compressive strengths of the RA and RB concretes reduced when the amount of recycled aggregate was used. For instance, the compressive strengths of

Summary and conclusions

From the results of the properties of concretes containing recycled aggregates with GRHA, the following conclusions can be drawn:

  • 1.

    The use of a high amount of recycled aggregate to replace natural aggregate in concrete resulted in lower compressive strength, lower resistance to corrosion of the embedded steel bar, and lower resistance to chloride penetration as compared to CT concrete. In addition, RA concrete presented higher compressive strength, higher chloride resistance, and lower steel

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial supports from Faculty of Engineering, Princess of Naradhiwas University and this work was also financially supported by Development of Civil Engineering, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi under Grant No. CE-KMUTT 6304. Thanks are also extended to the Thailand Research Fund (TRF) under the TRF Distinguished Research Professor Grant No. DPG6180002.

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