Sustainable Concrete Using Rice Husk Ash As Supplementary Material

Abstract

Rice husk ash (RHA) is a by-product from the burning of rice husk. The husk of the rice is removed in the farming process before it is sold and consumed. Since it is a waste by product, its disposal is a problem. On the other hand production of cement releases lot of carbon dioxide in atmosphere causing green house effect. Therefore, if RHA is used in concrete as supplementary material can change the properties of concrete. Present Indian standard code does not give the percentage of rice husk that can be substituted in concrete as replacement of cement. Therefore, experiments were carried out using different percentage of RHA i.e 10%,15%,20% were used as replacement of cement and mechanical properties like compressive strength, flexural strength and split tensile strength were found which were than compared with concrete made from ordinary Portland cement. From the studies it was found that 10% of RHA can be used as replacement of cement without affecting the strength.