CHAPTER-1

Introduction

1.1 what is R.HA

Rice husk can be burnt into ash that fulfills the physical characteristics and
chemical composition of mineral admixtures. Pozzolanic activity of rice husk
ash (RHA) depends on (i) silica content, (ii) silica crystallization phase, and
(iii) size and surface area of ash particles. In addition, ash must contain only
a small amount of carbon.The optimized RHA, by controlled burn and/or
grinding, has been used as a pozzolanic material in cement and concrete.
Using it provides several advantages, such as improved strength and
durability properties, and environmental benefits related to the disposal of
waste materials and to reduced carbon dioxide emissions.

RHA produced after burning of Rice husks (RH) has high reactivity and
pozzolanic property. Chemical compositions of RHA are affected due to
burning process and temperature. Silica content in the ash increases with
higher the burning temperature.The effect of partial replacement of cement
with different percentages of ground RHA on the compressive strength and
durability of concrete is examined.

1.2 Properties of RHA

Rice Husk Ash is a Pozzolanic material. It is having different physical &
chemical properties. The product obtained from R.H.A. is identified by trade
name Silpoz which is much finer than cement.
 Table 1: Physical Properties of R.H.A

PARTI PROP
CULA ERTIE
S.No RS S
1 Colour Gray
Shape
textur Irregul
2 e ar
Non
Minera crystal
3 logy line
Particl >45
4 e size micron
Odourl
5 Odour ess
Specifi
c
6 gravity 2.3
T
a
bl
e
2:
C
h
e
m
ic
al
p
r
o
p
e
rt
ie
s
of
R
.
H
.A

S.No Parti Prop

cular ortio
 s n
Silicon
dioxid 86.94
1 e %
Alumi
num
2 oxide 0.2%
Iron
3 oxide 0.1%
Calciu
m 03.-
4 Oxide 2.2%
Magn
esium 0.2-
5 Oxide 0.6%
Sodiu
m 0.1-
6 Oxide 0.8%
Potass
ium 2.15-
7 Oxide 2.30%
Ignitio 3.15-
8 n Loss 4.4%

1.3 MATERIALS USED

(A) Rice Husk Ash (RHA).

Rice Husk Ash was burnt for approximately 72hours in air in an
uncontrolled burning process. The temperature was in the range of 400-
600 degree C .The ash collected was sieved through BS standard sieve
size 75m and its colour was grey.

(B) Cement
Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) of 53 grade was used in which the
composition and properties is in compliance with the Indian standard
organization.

Cement can be defined as the bonding material having cohesive &

adhesive properties which makes it capable to unite the different
construction materials and form the compacted assembly.
Ordinary/Normal Portland cement is one of the most widely used type of
Portland Cement. The name Portland cement was given by Joseph Aspdin
in 1824 due to its similarity in color and its

quality when it hardens like Portland stone. Portland stone is white grey
limestone in island of Portland, Dorset.
B (i) The chief chemical components of ordinary Portland
cement are:

1. 1. Calcium

1. 2. Silica

1. 3. Alumina

1. 4. Iron

Calcium is usually derived from limestone, marl or chalk while silica, alumina
and iron come from the sands, clays & iron ores. Other raw materials may
include shale, shells and industrial by products.

B (ii) BASIC COMPOSITION

Contents %
i. CaO 60-67
ii. SiO2 17-25
iii. Al2O 3 3-8
iv. Fe2O 3 0.5-6.0
v. MgO 0.5-4.0
vi. Alkalis 0.3-1.2
vii. SO 3 2.0-3.5

The chief compound which usually form in process of mixing:

1. 1. Triclcium silicate (3CaO.SiO2)

1. 2. Dicalcium silicate (2CaO.SiO2)

3. 3. Tricalcium aluminates (3CaO.Al2O3)

1. 4. Tetracalcium aluminoferrite (4CaO.Al2O3.Fe2O3)

B(iii) CHARATERSTICS OF OPC 53 GRADE

0. 1. Durable

0. 2. Corrosion resistance
0. 3. Low heat of hydration

0. 4. Volume stability

0. 5. Gigantic compressive strength

(C) CONCRETE

Concrete is a composite material composed mainly of water, aggregate, and

cement. Often, additives and reinforcements (such as rebar) are included in
the mixture to achieve the desired physical properties of the finished
material. When these ingredients are mixed together, they form a fluid mass
that is easily molded into shape. Over time, the cement forms a hard matrix
which binds the rest of the ingredients together into a durable stone-like
material with many uses.

C (i) HISTORY

include
Famous structur the the Canal and
concrete es Hoover Dam, Panama the
large-
Roman The scale technolo were the
Pantheon. earliest users of concrete gy ancient
Romans, and concrete was widely used in the Roman Empire. The Colosseum
in Rome was built largely of concrete, and the concrete dome of the
Pantheon is the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.

C (ii) CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD CONCRETE

0. 1. Workability

0. 2. Freedom from segregation

0. 3. Freedom from bleeding

0. 4. Strength

0. 5. Durability

0. 6. Appearance
(D) AGGREGATES

The inert mineral materials such as sand, gravel, etc used for manufacture of
concretes are known as aggregates. Requirements Of Good Aggregates

0. 1. It should be sufficiently strong.

0. 2. It should be hard

0. 3. It should be durable.

0. 4. It should have rough surface.

0. 5. It should be in spherical or cubical in shape.

D (i) Classification of Aggregate

0. 1. Coarse Aggregates

0. 2. Fine Aggregates

Coarse aggregates
The aggregates which pass through 75mm IS sieve and retain on 4.75mm IS
sieve are known as coarse aggregates.

Fine aggregates
The aggregates which pass through 4.75 mm IS sieve and retain on 75
micron IS sieve are known as fine aggregates.

*The research work is restricted to sand collected from the river. The sand
was collected to ensure that there was no allowance for deleterious
materials contained in the sand and the size of 5mm. In this research,
granite of 20mm maximum size was used.

(E) Water
an important role in concrete
production (mix) in that it
Water plays starts the reaction
between the cement, pozzolan and the
aggregates. It helps in the
 hydration of the mix. In this
research, the water used was distilled water.

1.4 Objective
The main objective of this work is to study the suitability of the rice husk ash
as a pozzolanic material for cement replacement in concrete.However it is
expected that the use of rice husk ash in concrete improve the strength
properties of concrete. Also it is an attempt made to develop the concrete
using rice husk ash as a source material for partial replacement of cement,
which satisfies the various structural properties of concrete like compressive
concrete

0. 1. Effect of Rice Husk Ash on workability.

1. 2. Effect on Compressive strength of concrete.
2. 3. Comparison of result of different tests with varying proportion of RHA.

1.5 Scope of the project

It is also expected that the final outcome of the project will have an overall
beneficial effect on the utility of rice husk ash concrete in the field of civil
engineering construction work. Following parameters influences behavior of
the rice husk ash concrete, so these parameters are kept constant for the
experimental work. Thus the scope of the project can be summarized as:

0. A. To obtain Mix proportions of Control concrete by IS method.

0. B. To perform the specific gravity test, sieve analysis and slump test
under Indian Standard methods.

C. To conduct Compression test on RHA and Control concrete on standard IS

specimen size 150 x 150 x 150 mm.

CHAPTER 2

of Review

Al Khalaf and A.Yousif (1984)

 Have investigated the effect of rice husk on pozzolanic behavior of rice
husk ash. They studied the actual range of temperature required to burn
rice husk to get the desired pozzolanic product. They investigated that up
to 40% replacement of cement with RHA can be made with no significant
change in the compressive strength as compared to the controlled mix, if
the rice husk is burnt under optimum temperature condition.

Ismail and Waliuddin (1996)

Had worked on effect of rise husk ash on high strength concrete. They
studied the effect the rise husk ash (RHA) passing 200 and 325 micron
sieves with 10- 30 % replacement of cement on strength of HSC. Test
result indicated that strength of HSC decreased when cement was
partially replaced by RHA for maintaining same value of workability. They
observed that optimum replacement of cement by RHA was 10 20 %.

Ramezanianpour et al. (2009, 2010)

Concluded that burning rice husks at temperature below 700C produces
rice husk ashes with high pozzolanic activity.

Ryan (1999)
Investigated on Concrete durability. He in his paper through QCL group
addresses two aspects of concrete serviceability, which has been the
subject of extensive recent discussion and research: sulphate attack and
chloride ion penetration. The basic chemistry involved in each of these
processes is outlined by him and differentiated and their effects on
concrete and reinforcing steel are described. His paper relied for actual
test data, showing relative performance of binder options, on
experimental work carried out by researchers at the CSIRO Division of
Building, Construction, and Engineering.

Skalny et al (2002)
Researched on Concrete subject to sulfate attack undergoes a progressive
and profound reorganization of its internal microstructure. These
alterations have direct consequences on the engineering properties of the
material. As seen from his studies, concrete undergoing sulphate attack is
often found to suffer from swelling, spalling and cracking. There is
overwhelming evidence to show that the degradation also contribute to

significantly reduce the mechanical properties of concrete. He studied the

behaviour of hydrated cement systems tested under well-controlled
laboratory conditions is also distinguished from the performance of
concrete in service. He stated that Sulphate attack has significant
consequences on the microstructure and engineering properties of
concrete. Marked expansion and loss in the mechanical properties of the
 material often accompany sulphate-induced micro structural alterations.

Prasad et al (2006)
Investigated on Cement concrete which continues to be the pre-eminent
construction materials for use in any type of civil engineering structure He
concluded in his investigation the blended cements, particularly are better
in Sodium Sulphate environment. The blended cement mixes show more
deterioration in Magnesium Sulphate exposure in compared to plain
cement mixes. The Magnesium Sulphate environment is more severe than
Sodium Sulphate environment. The performance of low water/binder ratio
mixes is inferior in Sulphate resistance. The little initial air curing of mixes
is beneficial for Sulphate resistance. He also stated that The deterioration
of cement mixes increases with increase in the concentration of Sulphate.
The presence of Chloride ions with Sulphate ions reduces the rate of
Sulphate attack on cement mixes. The deterioration rate of mixes due to
Sulphate attack is higher at high temperature with alternate wetting and
drying cycles.

Abdullahi et al (2006)
Investigated on the compressive strength of some commercial sandcrete
blocks in Minna, Nigeria was investigated. Rice Husk Ash (RHA) was
prepared from burning firewood. Preliminary analysis of the Constituent
materials of the ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) / Rice Husk Ash (RHA)
hollow sandcrete blocks were conducted to confirm their suitability for
block making. He conducted physical test of the freshly prepared mix.
150mm450mm hollow sandcrete blocks were cast cured and crushed for
1, 3, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 percent
replacement levels. He concluded the results of test and indicated
compressive strength of the OPC/RHA sandcrete blocks increases with age
at curing and decreases as the percentage of RHA content increases.

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY
3.1 GENERAL
It is also expected that the final outcome of the project will have an overall
beneficial effect on the utility of rice husk ash concrete in the field of civil
engineering construction work. Following parameters influences behavior of
the rice husk ash concrete, so these parameters are kept constant for the
experimental work.

0. Percentage replacement of cement by rice husk ash

0. Fineness of rice husk ash
0. Chemical composition of rice husk ash
0. Water to cement material ratio (w/c ratio)
0. Type of Curing

Also from the literature survey, it is observed that the parameters suggested
by different researchers and their results are not matching with each other. It
was due to variation in properties of different materials considered in the
work. Therefore the percentage replacement of cement by rice husk ash and
method of mix design is fixed after preliminary investigation.

3.2 FLOW CHART

 PRIMARY LITERATURE TEST

CONCLUSION RESULTS

TRIAL MIX
DESIGN

CONTROLLE
D CONCRETE
CASTING

PARTIAL
REPLACEMENT OF
CEMENT WITH
RHA(20%)
 COMPRESSIO
th
N TEST AT 7
th
AND 28 DAY

Fig-2 Flow chart depicting the methodology