EFFECT OF FLY ASH ON CONCRETE STRENGTH BASIC CIVIL ENGINEERING TUTORIALS

EFFECT OF FLY ASH ON CONCRETE STRENGTH BASIC INFORMATION
What Is The Effect Of Fly Ash On Concrete Strength?


The first difference among fly ashes is that some are cementitious even in the absence of Portland cement; these are the so-called ASTM Class C, or high-calcium, fly ashes, usually produced at power plants that burn subbituminous or lignitic coals.

In general, the rate of strength development in concretes tends to be only marginally affected by high-calcium fly ashes. Concrete incorporating high-calcium fly ashes can be made on an equal-weight or equal-volume replacement basis without any significant effect on strength at early ages.

Yuan and Cook (1983) examined the strength development of concretes with and without high-calcium fly ash (CaO = 30.3 wt%). The data from their research are shown in Figure 2.5 and Figure 2.6.


Using a simple replacement method of mixture proportioning (Table 2.6), they found the rate of strength development of fly-ash concrete to be comparable to that of the control concrete, with or without air entrainment.

Low-calcium fly ashes, the so-called ASTM Class F fly ashes, were the first to be examined for use in concrete. Most of what has been written on the behavior of fly-ash concrete examines concretes that use Class F ashes.

In addition, the ashes used in much of the early work came from older power plants and were coarse in particle size, contained unburned fuel, and were often relatively inactive pozzolans. Used in concrete and proportioned by simple replacement, these ashes showed exceptionally slow rates of strength development.

This led to the erroneous view that fly ash reduces strength at all ages. Gebler and Klieger (1986) evaluated the effect of ASTM Class F and Class C fly ashes from 10 different sources on the compressive strength development of concretes under different curing conditions, including effects of low temperature and moisture availability.

Their tests indicated that concrete containing fly ash had the potential to produce satisfactory compressive strength development. The influence of the class of fly ash on the long-term compressive strength of concrete was not significant.

In general, compressive strength development of concretes containing Class F fly ash was more susceptible to low curing temperature than concretes with Class C fly ash or the control concretes. Gebler and Klieger concluded that Class F fly-ash concretes required more initial moist curing for long-term, air-cured compressive strength development than did concretes containing Class C fly ashes or the control concretes.

GREEN CEMENT BASIC AND TUTORIALS

GREEN CEMENT BASIC INFORMATION
What Are Green Cement?


The concrete industry is the largest user of natural resources in the world and thus has a considerable environmental impact. Each ton of Portland cement requires about 1.5 tons of raw material for its production.

This industry is not only energy intensive but is also a major contributor of greenhouse gases, in the form of CO2. Each ton of Portland cement that is produced involves the release into the atmosphere of about one ton of CO2.

Indeed, according to Mehta (1999), the cement industry is responsible for about 7% of global CO2 emissions; thus, there is considerable interest now in developing cements that are more environmentally friendly. One such cement (CEMROC), based on blast-furnace slag, has recently been described by Gebauer et al. (2005).

This cement, produced by Holcim in Europe, is reported to show close to zero CO2 emission during its production (only about 100 pounds per ton of cement).

It is similar to the supersulfated cement described above and is particularly well suited for use in structures exposed to aggressive environments. Other cements of this general type will almost certainly be developed in the future.

Another (and simpler) approach is to use much greater proportions of fly ash in concrete. A great deal of development is being conducted on what is referred to as high-performance, high-volume fly ash concrete (Malhotra, 2002; Malhotra and Mehta, 2002).

Such concretes may be defined as:

• Containing at least 50% fly ash by mass of the cementing materials
• Having a Portland cement content of less than 200 kg/m3
• Having a water content of less than 130 kg/m3
• Having a water/cementing materials ratio of less than 0.35

These concretes reach their full strength potential rather more slowly than conventional concretes, but the end result is a low-permeability, durable concrete.
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