An experimental investigation on mechanical behaviour of eco - friendly concrete

What is it about?

Cement-based substances have been the most essential construction materials for many decades now and they are likely to continue to enjoy this kind of an importance in the distant future too. Many waste and eco-friendly materials like FA, Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS), Rice Husk Ash (RHA), Limestone Fines and Alccofine have been shown to exhibit pozzalonic properties; thus they have been used as alternative cementitious substances. They can be mixed either directly to cement or at the concrete mixer. Such cementitious substances for concrete should be fine mineral powders; further, when they are mixed with water, they should react chemically to shape as rigid mass to make concrete. This paper presents an experimental study on the use of Alccofine and FA in combination. These materials have exceptional characteristic in enhancing the performance of concrete both in the fresh and the hardened stages due to their optimized particle size distribution.

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Why is it important?

Fly ash (FA) and Alccofine are the eco-friendly materials that can be used in the production of concrete composites. Initially, concrete mixes of M30 grade with replacement of cement by 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% by weight of Fly ash were prepared. They were subjected to compression test so as to select the optimum replacement percentage of FA. Keeping this optimum percentage of FA as constant, additional replacement of cement with Alccofine was done varying its replacement in the range of 8%, 10%, 12% and 14%. The mechanical properties such as compressive, split tensile and flexural strengths of these mixes were computed for 7, 14 and 28 days. The results of Eco-Friendly Concrete (EFC) are compared with those of control concrete. It was observed that EFC mixes exhibited superior qualities like quick setting and enhanced workability, their mechanical properties were found to be higher than that of the conventional concrete. This goes to prove that the combination of FA and Alccofine together as replacement for cement would enhance the properties of EFC.