Abstracto

Strength and Behaviour of High Volume Fly Ash Concrete

Mini Soman Sobha.K

Fly ash is a waste product generated by coal burning power plants. It has been generally used for land filling. However in places where regulations preventing atmospheric pollution do not exist, it is billowed into the atmosphere. Fortunately the discovery made several years back that fly ash can be used as a partial replacement for cement in concrete. The present study aims at developing a concrete by replacement of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) with 50% Fly Ash by mass. The fresh and hardened properties of High Volume Fly Ash Concrete (HVFAC) with 50% replacement of cement and Ordinary Portland Cement Concrete (OPCC) are studied. The study discloses that high volume of Fly Ash in concrete reduces the water demand and improves the workability. Study also reveals that the OPCC and HVFAC exhibits similar hardened properties. Comparison of flexural response of beams made with OPCC and HVFAC with different percentage of reinforcement are also studied. It is observed that HVFAC beams have shown notable improvement in the deflection , cracking behaviour and load carrying capacity.