Experimental study on concrete manufactured with waste materials

Abstract

Concrete is an often used building material in the civil engineering industries for the construction of buildings industries water retaining structures bridges road paths and runways The growth of the infrastructural facilities mostly focuses on the availability of the cement and hence it compels the cement manufacturers to produce massive quantity of cement to meet up such demand On the other hand due to high cost of construction materials like cement and reinforcing bars the cost for the construction of structures has increased These issues compel the researchers to identify the substitute supplementary cementing materials for the partial or complete replacement of cement for the preparation of concrete The direct disposal of the agricultural wastes like groundnut husk coconut shell corn cob and rice husk shell and industrial waste materials such as Ground Granulated Blast-furnace Slag GGBS silica fume fly ash and metakaol in on the land without any treatment creating environmental and land pollution These waste materials can be used as supplementary cementing materials Among the various pozzolanic materials obtained from the agricultural and industrial by-product waste the Groundnut Shell Ash GSA and GGBS have been used as supplementary cementitious materials since the GSA and GGBS has an excellent pozzolanic property The GSA and GGBS present in concrete forms Calcium Silicate Hydrates CSH paste when reacting with water and Calcium Hydroxide CH and produce denser micro-structure of the concrete matrix It improves the compressive strength and enhances the durability performance of concrete In general the concrete is a brittle material and it has poor tensile strength about 1/10th of its compressive strength which is liable for crack formation and their propagation when it is subjected to load The addition of Polypropylene Fibre PPF enhances its tensile strength in an effective and economic way newline