Dr.

Shiv Kumar et al, International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences,
ISSN 2250-0588, Impact Factor: 6.452, Volume 06 Issue 06, June 2016, Page 38-41

Impact of Fly-Ash on Compressive and

Flexural Strength in Fly-Ash Concrete
Dr. Shiv Kumar1, Sabir Khan2 , and Kamal Kumar Pandey3
1
(Head, Department of Civil Engineering, Jims Engineering Management Technical Campus, Greater Noida.)
2,3
(Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Jims Engineering Management Technical Campus,
Greater Noida.)
Abstract: Fly-ash is the waste generated by thermal power plants during the production of electric power and
having such a big environmental concern. This research paper is carried out the utilization and minimization of
solid waste i.e. fly-ash in cement concrete. The fly-ash used in different proportions as a replacement of cement. To
carry out experiments and study for this project the fly-ash is procured from a nearby thermal power plant in
Gautam Buddha District, Uttar Pradesh. The cement in mix concrete is replaced by a different and definit e
proportion of fly-ash and it is observed that w/c ratio played a vital role in determining the compressive as well as
flexural strength. The use of fly ash in replacement of cement is economically and environ -mentally beneficial. As a
building material the fly ash is cheaper and use of fly-ash in concrete contributes to environmental protection and
helps to control pollution generated during the production of Portland cement in the form of emissions of some
greenhouse gases.
Keywords: Fly Ash, Mix Concrete, Compressive Strength, Flexural Strength.

I. INTRODUCTION
Fly ash concrete was first used in the U.S. in 1929 by engineers for the construction of Hoover Dam, later on in
1948, around 120,000 metric tons of fly ash was used in Hungry in the construction of Hungry Horse Dam(4).
Fly ash is very much resembles to volcanic ashes that were used in production of hydraulic cements about 2,300
years ago. Italian town named Po zzuoli is well known for the production of such cement which later gave its name
to the term “pozzolan”. A pozzolan is a material which contains siliceous or siliceous / alu minous material wh ich
has cementing property when mixed with lime and water. Fly ash is the best known pozzolans which were most
commonly used, over the world. Fly ash, a waste product of coal- based thermal power plants, known for its
potential environ mental impact majorly for air pollution and respiratory diseases to mankind. It also affects
agricultural production by affecting photo-synthesis process in plants. So me of the research in the past proposed few
ways of utilizing fly ash for a numbers of applications (7). The most common use of fly ash is in cement concrete.
Fly ash particles are almost spherical in shape, and blend freely in mixtures results in a smoother surface with
sharper detail and also improve workability that means less water is required, resulting in less segregation of the
mixtu re(1, 2, 3.).
The utilization of such waste as a partial replacement of cement during the process of mix design has
important technical, environmental and economic benefits such as the reduction in the amount of waste material,
cleaner environ ment and cost effective structures etc.

II. MATERIALS
Cement, aggregates (gravel and sand), water and ad mixture (super plasticizer) were used for the study. The chemical
composition of the cement and fly-ash are shown in the Table 1.
The mechanical properties of aggregates used are shown below in Table 2.

Table-1: Chemical Composition of Cement and Fly-ash

S. No. Chemical Component Quantity (% )
Cement (43 grade) Fl y-ash
1. SiO2 20.87 56.50
2. Al2 O3 5.78 30
3. Fe2 O3 3.5 3.85
4. CaO 61.35 3.25
5. MgO 2.13 0.85
6. Na2 O+K2 O 0.14+0.67 0.76+1.3

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Dr. Shiv Kumar et al, International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences,
ISSN 2250-0588, Impact Factor: 6.452, Volume 06 Issue 06, June 2016, Page 38-41

7. C3 S 50 55
8. C2 S 24 16
9. C3 A 8 11

Table-2: Properties of Aggregates

S. No Item Gravel Sand
1. Diameter (mm) 10 4.75
2. Unit Wt. (Kg/ m3 ) 1530 1762
3. Absorption (%) 1.28 1.82
4. Sp. Gravity 2.64 2.65
5. Fineness modulus 6.3 3.28
6. Co mpressive Strength (MPa) 94 -
7. Modulus of Elasticity (GPa) 55 -

III. MATERIALS AND METHODS:

The M 35 grade of concrete was taken as a standard for the present studies. Standard methods were used for making
the fly ash concrete based on proportioning of materials as per the cementitious material contents(5, 6). Detailed
specifications are availab le in Table 1 and Table 2.
Mechanical Mixer was used for mixing of materials.
Standard cube moulds of 15 cm for the preparation of cube were used to calculate the compressive strength.
Moulds of 10x10x40 cm were used for the preparation of samp les to calculate the flexural strength.
Mechanical vibrator was used for the compaction of flexural mou lds and cube.
The slump test was performed for freshly prepared concrete and the slump values were ranged between 125 and
178mm.

Figure-1:(a) Showing Cube Samples and (b) Fl uxural S ample.

(a) (b )

Table-3: Material Constituents and their rati o.

S. No. Fl y-ash W/C Ratio Gravel Sand Ratio

(% )
1 0.5 1.98
2 35 0.45 2.05
3 0.4 2.05
4 0.5 1.98
45
5 0.45 2.05

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Dr. Shiv Kumar et al, International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences,
ISSN 2250-0588, Impact Factor: 6.452, Volume 06 Issue 06, June 2016, Page 38-41

6 0.4 2.05
7 0.5 1.98
8 55 0.45 2.05
9 0.4 2.05

IV.TESTING PROCEDURES

a) Compressive test:
Co mpressive strength resists compression whereas tensile strength resists tension. In the study of strength of
materials, tensile strength, compressive strength, and shear strength can be analyzed independently (12).
The cube specimen is placed on the platform of compression testing machine (Figure-2 a). The load is then
applied on the cube surface steadily. The load continues till the cube fails. The readings were noted followed by
standard calculations.

b) Flexural Test:
Flexu ral strength, also known as modulus of rupture, bend strength, or fracture strength, is a material property,
defined as the stress in a material just before it y ields in a flexure test(8).
If the materials are homogeneous, the flexural strength would be the same as the tensile strength.
The specimen is then placed symmetrically on the load-applying and support blocks. The load is then applied until
50 percent (appro x.) of the breaking load has been reached (Figure-2b).

Figure: 2 (a) Cube Sample testing (b) Flexural Sample Testing

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The compressive strengths of the fly ash concrete along with super-plasticizer were achieved on 28 days of curing.
The results obtained during the experiments are shown in Table: 4, the maximu m co mpressive strength was
achieved with the w/c rat io 0.4 for 35, 45 and 55% of fly-ash mixed concrete(9, 11).
The Super-plasticizer played a vital ro le in imp roving flexural strength in the fly-ash concrete. Table 5
showing the results obtained after 28 days of curing. It has been clearly seen for each batch that maximu m flexu ral
strength of fly-ash concrete can be achieved at 0.4 w/c ratio.
The results of compressive and flexural strength indicated that w/c ratio is one of the most important factors
in the strength of fly-ash concrete.

Table-4: Compressive Strength of Fly-Ash Concrete

Fl y-ash
Batch W/C Ratio Compressive Strength
(% )
0.5 24.67
Batch-1 35
0.45 28.76

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Dr. Shiv Kumar et al, International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences,
ISSN 2250-0588, Impact Factor: 6.452, Volume 06 Issue 06, June 2016, Page 38-41

0.4 30.61
0.5 23.52
Batch-2 45 0.45 26.51
0.4 28.91
0.5 20.45
Batch-3 55 0.45 22.89
0.4 25.32

Table-5: Flexural Strength of Fl y-Ash Concrete

Fl y-ash
Batch W/C Ratio Flexural Strength
(% )
0.5 3.10
Batch-1 35 0.45 3.91
0.4 4.85
0.5 2.76
Batch-2 45 0.45 3.12
0.4 3.72
0.5 1.53
Batch-3 55 0.45 1.97
0.4 2.15

VI. CONCLUSION
For a given batch of materials in a concrete mixture, the Portland cements content that produces a maximu m
concrete strength. To obtain considerable strengths and control of environmental pollution one of the most practical
methods is the replacement of ce ment by fly ash during the preparation of mix concrete. Hundred percent
replacement of cement is not possible, so it is required to calculate the optimu m quantity of Fly ash in order to
achieve considerable compressive as well as flexural strength. A better quality of concrete can be proportioned
containing a low quality and quantity of fly ash(1, 2).
In addition to the environmental benefits by controlling and reducing the concentration of the greenhouse gases
emissions, the replacement of cement with fly-ash in the construction industry contributes also to the reduction of
the cost of cementit ious materials because the fly ash is cheaper as compared to the cement.

VII. REFERENCES
1. A. Bilodeau and V. Mohan Malhotra, “High-Volume Fly Ash System: Concrete Solution for Sustainable Development”, ACI Materials
Journal, vol. 97, no. 1, (2000).
2. Langley, W.S., and G.H.Leaman, Practical uses for High- Volume Fly Ash Concrete, Germany,1998.
3. Malhotra, V.M., and P.K. Mehta, High- Performance, High- Volume Fly Ash Concrete, Ottawa. 2002, pp.101.
4. T. U. GanironJr, “Scrap Waste Tire as an Additive in Asphalt Pavement for Road Construction”, International Journal of Advanc es
in Applied Sciences, vol. 1, no. 2, (2012), pp. 31-37.
5. Confederation of Indian Industry, Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development, For obtaining a superior perfor-mance of
HVFAC, New Delhi, 2005.
6. Vargas, José A., A Designer’s View of Fly Ash Concrete, USA, 2007 .
7. Ehrenberg, A.Geisler, J.,Ecological Properties of Blast- furnace cement-part of life cycle, Germany, 1997.
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexural_strength
9. Felekoglu, B. “Investigation on mechanical and physical properties of SCC,” M.Sc. Thesis in Civil Engineering, DokusEylul
University, Izmir, 2003.
10. Assaad, J., Khayat, K.H. and Daczko J. “Evaluation of static stability of self-consolidating concrete,” ACI Materials Journal, 101, 3,
2004, 207-215.
11. Pei, M., Wang, Z., Li, W., Zhang, J., Pan, Q. and Qin, X. “The properties of cementitious materials superplasticized with two
superplasticizers based on aminosulfonate-phenolformaldehyde,” Construction and Building Materials, 22, 2008, 2382-2385.
12. The European guidelines for self compactingconcrete , May-2005.

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