Sustainable Environment Research 28 (2018) 25e31

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Sustainable Environment Research

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Original Research Article

Effect of class F fly ash on the durability properties of concrete

Ashish Kumer Saha
Department of Civil Engineering, Curtin University, Perth WA 6102, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The present study evaluates the application of class F fly ash as a partial replacement of binder in
Received 12 May 2017 concrete. The compressive strength of the fly ash samples showed low early compressive strength
Received in revised form comparing to the control samples. However, due to pozzolanic reaction strength was improved gradually
2 July 2017
over a longer period of time, whereas control samples stopped the strength growth after 56-d of curing.
Accepted 18 September 2017
Available online 21 September 2017
The drying shrinkage was reduced with the increment of fly ash content in the mix. The inclusion of fly
ash as a binder reduced the porosity of the concrete. As a result, the fly ash concrete exhibited lower
water sorptivity and chloride permeability. Furthermore, a significant drop of sorptivity and chloride
Keywords:
Fly ash
permeability was observed for fly ash concrete between the curing period of 28e180 days. Micro-
Compressive strength structural morphology of fly ash samples was investigated to evaluate the reason behind the improved
Drying shrinkage durability characteristics.
Permeable void © 2017 Chinese Institute of Environmental Engineering, Taiwan. Production and hosting by Elsevier
Water sorptivity B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
Chloride permeability licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
Concrete is one of the frequently adopted construction materials
around the earth. Durability, fire resistance and freedom of
moulding into any shape made this material widely acceptable.
Concrete production requires an enormous amount of environ-
mental resources, such as sand, stone and water. Another essential
ingredient of concrete production is the cement, which reacts with
water and binds the aggregates together. The manufacturing pro-
cess of cement emits a massive amount of CO2. Almost 7% of the
greenhouse gas emission generates from the cement production
[1]. Therefore, researchers have been evaluating the applicability of
different supplementary cementing materials such as fly ash, rice
husk ash, slag, and silica fume. Fly ash is generated from the coal
combustion process as industrial by-product. The successful
application of fly ash will not only reduce the cement consumption
but also eliminate the waste disposal costs. The fly ash has been
adopted widely in the construction industry as a binder replace-
ment due to its pozzolanic activity, low water demand, reduced
bleeding, and less heat evolution. The spherical particles of fly ash
produce the ball bearing effect, thus fly ash concrete has a better
E-mail address: a.saha@postgrad.curtin.edu.au.
Peer review under responsibility of Chinese Institute of Environmental
Engineering.
particle packing and dense paste [2]. ACI 211 [3] recommended
15e25% replacement of cement by fly ash in high strength concrete.
Class F fly ash contains a small quantity of lime. Thus,
compressive strength is reduced with the increment of fly ash
content in concrete. However, due to the pozzolanic activity of fly
ash, the compressive strength increased in later stages of curing
[4,5]. The amorphous silica present in fly ash undergoes a chemical
reaction with the calcium hydroxide and generates calcium silicate
hydrate [6]. This pozzolanic reaction of fly ash increases its signif-
icance not only in concrete but also in various construction uses [7].
Due to the pozzolanic reaction, the strength increment continues
for a longer period of time comparing to the conventional concrete
[8]. In addition, fly ash reduces the concrete bleeding and improves
its workability [9]. Fly ash can improve the long-term compressive
strength of the conventional concrete and the concrete composed
of manufactured aggregates as well as recycled aggregates [10,11].
The microstructure observation of fly ash samples after the early
age of curing exhibits a copious amount of un-hydrated spherical
fly ash particles. Despite that, after long-term curing of one year, the
microstructure of fly ash samples seemed to be very compact, and
no sign of un-hydrated fly ash particles was observed [12]. The
hydration of fly ash comparatively takes a longer time. Therefore
low compressive strength has been reported during the initial
stages of curing. However, the strength development of fly ash
depends on its chemical and physical properties. Chindaprasirt
et al. [13] reported that fly ash composed of fine particle size

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.serj.2017.09.001
2468-2039/© 2017 Chinese Institute of Environmental Engineering, Taiwan. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
26 A.K. Saha / Sustainable Environment Research 28 (2018) 25e31

distribution exhibits higher compressive strength comparing to the compared to its counterparts. Therefore fly ash from a new source
ordinary fly ash. has to be tested before its application. In this study, the durability of
During the hydration process of the binder, it causes the con- the concrete was assessed by application of class F fly ash
crete to shrink, and excessive shrinkage might lead to the severe commercially available in Western Australia (WA). In order to
cracking in the concrete structure. Fly ash has a positive impact on evaluate the durability of fly ash concrete, compressive strength,
shrinkage mitigation. Atiş [14] pointed out the application of high drying shrinkage, sorptivity, permeable void and chloride perme-
volume fly ash in concrete, particularly 50% replacement of cement ability were determined after different curing period and compared
by fly ash led to the shrinkage reduction by 30% compared to the with the Portland cement concrete. Finally, the scanning electron
conventional concrete. The effect of fly ash on shrinkage depends microscopy (SEM) imaging was conducted in different curing
on its fineness and water requirements. Comparably less reduction period to evaluate the extent of fly ash influence on the durability
of drying shrinkage was observed for samples with coarse fly ash. In properties of concrete.
addition, fly ash with high water demand exhibits higher shrinkage
comparing to their counterparts [15]. 2. Materials and methods
Permeable void in concrete affects the transport mechanism of
fluid from the surroundings. Supit and Shaikh [16] showed that 2.1. Materials
inclusion of fly ash in concrete reduces the volume of the perme-
able void by 6e11% compared to the conventional concrete. In the present study, locally available construction materials in
Furthermore, Shaikh and Supit [17] observed the effects of the WA were used. Portland cement is classified as general purposes,
different fly ash content in concretes on permeable voids. It was according to Australian Standard AS 3972 [25] and class F fly ash
found that at 40% replacement level of fly ash, the permeable void according to ASTM 618 [26] was the primary binders. The chemical
of concrete decreases, however, 60% substitution level exhibited composition of the materials was determined by X-ray fluorescence
higher permeable void comparing to control specimens. On the spectroscopy as shown in Table 1. It can noticeable that, fly ash
other hand, Mardani-Aghabaglou et al. [18] reported fly ash con- primarily composed of silica, alumina and iron oxide. In order to
crete showed higher permeable voids corresponding to the control have a good workable mix, naphthalene based superplasticizer
samples and the void content increased with the increment of the according to ASTM 494 [27] as a “class A” admixture was used in the
fly ash content. concrete production. Crushed gravel with a maximum size of
Fly ash has a positive impact on the sorptivity coefficient of 20 mm and river sand was used as aggregate in the concrete mixes.
concrete. The addition of fly ash reduces the sorptivity of concrete.
However, curing condition for fly ash concrete dictates the terms. 2.2. Mix proportions
Fog curing for fly ash concrete is essential for improved sorptivity
coefficient whereas only cement concrete does not influence the The concrete mix design was conducted according to ACI 211 [3].
curing conditions. Others [19,20] found that fly ash reduces the A total of five set of samples was cast, a control mix with no fly ash
permeability of the cement paste as well as the transition zone and four mixtures consist of 10, 20, 30 and 40% of fly ash as a
around the aggregates. Thus the sorptivity of concrete is minimised. replacement for cement. The waterecement ratio and the volume
Class F fly ash significantly reduces the chloride permeability of of superplasticizer were kept constant for all the mixtures. The
concrete. Wang et al. [21] demonstrated that class F fly ash is the concrete mix proportions are given in Table 2.
most efficient in the reduction of the chloride permeability of
concrete. The fineness of fly ash is a major factor in the decline of 2.3. Test methods
the chloride permeability; besides, the alkali binding by fly ash is
another controlling factor for the chloride permeability test. The The compressive strength was measured using cylindrical
class F fly ash consists of the lowest amount of alkali. Thus the pore specimens consist of 100 mm diameter and height of 200 mm. The
solution had a lower concentration of OH
, Kþ and Naþ with very samples were tested in different curing durations 7, 28, 56, 90, 180
low chloride permeability measured. Chindaprasirt et al. [22]; and 360 days in accordance with Australian Standard AS 1012.9
investigated the effects of different replacement level of fly ash on [28]. The samples were wet cured in lime saturated water for 28-d,
the chloride permeability of concrete by three different test setups. later on cured in air at ambient temperature, to resemble the field
It was found that with the increment of fly ash volume in concrete condition. In order to measure the concrete shrinkage,
the chloride permeability was significantly reduced in all three test
conditions, due to the fact that spherical and smooth surface of fly
ash reduced the average pore size of the paste. Table 1
Chemical composition of cement and fly ash.
Even though fly ash has been comprehensively studied in past
few decades by researchers, there have been some contradictory Parameter OPC (%) Fly ash (%)
results observed in the permeability of the concrete. It has been SiO2 20.29 76.34
well established that porosity reduces by the application of fly ash Al2O3 5.48 14.72
as supplementary cement [21]. However, Chindaprasirt et al. [13] Fe2O3 2.85 3.69
demonstrated the application of fly ash increased the porosity of MgO 1.24 0.54
SO3 2.49 0.11
the concrete. The chemical and physical properties of fly ash in- CaO 63.11 0.6
fluence the mechanical and durability test results significantly. Na2O 0.29 0.19
Furthermore, properties of fly ash can be different depending on K2O 0.45 0.96
the source. High calcium fly ash exhibited high early compressive Cr2O3 0.02 e
P2O5 0.17 0.1
strength compared to low calcium fly ash [23]. In addition, Mal-
SrO 0.05 e
hotra [24] conducted a series of experiments on 5 different low TiO2 0.27 0.61
calcium fly ashes and reported that the compressive strength Mn2O3 0.08 0.07
growth varied with the variation of the fly ash content and this ZnO 0.04 e
variation was not consistent with the presence of silica percentage. LOIa 3.39 0.53

A fly ash with high silica content showed slower strength growth a

Loss of ignition.
 A.K. Saha / Sustainable Environment Research 28 (2018) 25e31 27

Table 2
Concrete mix proportions.

Mix ID Binder (kg m
3) Fine aggregate Coarse aggregate Water (kg m
3) Superplasticizer w/ba
(kg m
3) (kg m
3) (kg m
3)
OPC Fly ash

FA0 400 0 700 1200 140 4 0.35

FA10 360 40 700 1200 140 4 0.35
FA20 320 80 700 1200 140 4 0.35
FA30 280 120 700 1200 140 4 0.35
FA40 240 160 700 1200 140 4 0.35
a
Water/binder ratio.

75  75  280 mm concrete prisms were prepared with studs

inserted at the ends, according to the Australian Standard AS
1012.13 [29]. After casting and demoulding the samples placed in
lime saturated water for 7 d and then zero reading was measured,
afterwards the samples were kept at 23  C and 50% relative hu-
midity. The length changes were registered until six months. The
permeability of the samples was determined by measuring the
volume of permeable voids (VPV) according to ASTM 642 [30]. This
test was conducted after two different curing conditions particu-
larly after 28 and 180 d. After the curing, concrete cylinders were
cut in 50 mm blocks and mass of the samples were measured in
oven-dry condition, saturated surface dry condition and immersed
in water and boiling for 5 h. The recorded mass was used to
calculate the permeable voids of concrete. Sorptivity test was
conducted as per ASTM 1585 [31]. The test was conducted after 28 d
and six months of curing; cylindrical samples were cut in 50 mm
blocks and oven dried to obtain constant mass. Afterwards, the
samples were put into the water exposing only bottom surface. The Fig. 1. Compressive strength development (Error bars at one standard deviation).

sides of the samples were sealed with duct tape, and plastic sheets
covered the top surface. The mass gain was recorded at a particular
interval up to 6 h. The chloride penetration was evaluated by rapid
chloride penetration method according to ASTM 1202 [32]. After
28 d and six months of curing, cylindrical samples were cut in
50 mm blocks and kept in a vacuum desiccator for 3 h at 50 mm Hg,
later kept under water for 18 h. The saturated samples were
exposed to a direct current of 60 V for 6 h. The one side of the
sample was contact with 3% NaCl, and the other end of the sample
was in contact with 0.3 M NaOH solution. Total charge passing
through the samples was used to measure the chloride
permeability.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Compressive strength development
The mean compressive strength of three concrete cylinders for
different curing periods is presented in Fig. 1. It can be seen that, the
control samples without fly ash exhibit a high early compressive
strength 45.5 MPa at 7-d of curing. The growth of compressive
strength increased sharply until 28-d of curing and reached to
57.4 MPa. However, after 28-d of curing, the increment of
compressive strength became steady. At the end of one year of
curing, the strength reached at 62.5 MPa. On the other hand, the
addition of fly ash reduced the compressive strength of concrete.
With the increment of class F fly ash volume, the lack of lime
content in the mix led to a low compressive strength. Fly ash in
concrete reduces the rate of hydration thus low early compressive
strength is observed. After 7-d of curing the compressive strength
was 39.2, 33.8, 29.8, 24.6 MPa for the samples with 10, 20, 30 and
40% fly ash, respectively. It is noticeable that, with the increment of
fly ash content the early age compressive strength of concrete
gradually decreases, which is consistent with the previous findings
[8,17]. The strength development was 86, 74, 56 and 51% of control
concrete strength for the samples with 10, 20, 30 and 40% fly ash,
respectively. The fly ash replacement level exhibits a significant
change in the strength growth of the samples. The 10% fly ash
samples showed a sharp improvement in compressive strength
from 7- to 56-d of curing, afterwards, the strength improvement
became steady. The samples with 20% fly ash exhibited a rapid
strength increment from 7- to 90-d of curing, and for 30 and 40% fly
ash, concrete compressive strength was increased sharply from 7-
d to 6 months of curing period following that, strength increment
was steady. After one year of curing, the fly ash samples reached
about 88, 82, 87, and 83% of control concrete compressive strength.
The maximum size of fly ash was 4 mm and the specific surface area
of the fly ash was 430 m2 kg
1, the surface area was determined by
Blaine's air permeability method according to the ASTM C204-16
[33]. Thus, the small size fly ash particles along with a high sur-
face area and high amount of amorphous silica content compared
to the Portland cement impart the pozzolanic reaction and thus
improvement of strength over a longer period [34,35].
3.2. Drying shrinkage
Fig. 2 shows the impact of fly ash on the concretes shrinkage. It is
noticeable that, the majority of concrete shrinkage occurred in first
two months. Afterwards, the shrinkage became steady for all the
mixes. After 28-d of testing the drying shrinkage, the samples were
464, 450, 398, 389, and 340 microstrains respectively for the 0, 10,
20, 30 and 40% fly ash mixtures. With the addition of 10, 20, 30 and
40% fly ash in the concrete, the shrinkage were 96, 85, 83 and 73% of
the control mixes. After six months of curing the shrinkage of the
samples were 631, 581, 571, 533, and 475 microstrain respectively
for 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40% fly ash mixtures; corresponding to about
92, 90, 84 and 75% of control concrete shrinkage. It is noticeable
28 A.K. Saha / Sustainable Environment Research 28 (2018) 25e31
Fig. 2. Effect of fly ash on drying shrinkage of concrete.
that, with the addition of fly ash, the drying shrinkage is reduced
gradually.
It has been well established that, drying shrinkage of concrete
depends on three controlling factors: waterebinder ratio of con-
crete; the volume of paste in concrete; and the rate of hydration. All
the five mixtures in this study had the equal waterebinder ratio as
well as the paste volume. However, cement replacement by the fly
ash reduces the lime content from the mix as the class F fly ash has
a significantly low lime content. Due to the reduction of lime
content, the rate of hydration of concrete reduces. As a result, fly
ash concrete exhibits lower drying shrinkage compared to the
conventional concrete [5,8].
3.3. Permeability
In order to assess the permeability of concrete, VPV content test
was conducted. This test measures the capillary pores, gel pores, air
voids and microcracks in concrete specimens [36]. The relationship
between the fly ash content and the VPV is shown in Fig. 3. It can be
seen that after 28-d of curing, VPV is within a range of 7.8e9.2% for
all the mixtures. With the addition of fly, the VPV reduced gradu-
ally. After 180-d of curing, the permeable voids significantly
reduced for all mixes. Due to the hydration of the binder, the
capillary and gel pores of the concrete paste reduced. Furthermore,
Fig. 3. Effect of fly ash on volume of permeable voids.
with the addition of fly ash, the permeable voids decreased grad-
ually. After 6 months of curing the permeable voids were 6.6, 6, 5.8,
5.2 and 5.1% respectively for the samples with 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40%
fly ash content. The higher fineness and ball bearing effect of fly ash
particles reduce the pores in the fly ash concrete. Thus VPV declined
with the increment of fly ash content.
3.4. Sorptivity
The effect of fly ash on sorptivity is presented in Fig. 4. It is
noticeable that with the addition of class F fly ash, the sorptivity of
the concrete reduced gradually. After 28-d of curing, the sorptivity
of the samples were 0.097, 0.088, 0.081, 0.073, 0.068 mm min
0.5
for the samples with 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40% fly ash respectively. The
fly ash concrete exhibited about 91, 84, 75 and 70% of control
concrete shrinkage respectively with 10, 20, 30 and 40% fly ash
content. After six months of curing, all the concrete samples
exhibited lower sorptivity, due to a longer period of curing allowing
the binders to hydrate properly and reduce the capillary pores. In
this case, with the addition of fly, sorptivity reduced gradually. The
sorptivity was within a range between 0.068 and 0.046 mm min
0.5
for all the mixtures, and with the addition of 10, 20, 30 and 40% fly
ash the sorptivity was respectively 96, 87, 71 and 68% of control
concrete. The fly ash particles are finer comparing to Portland
cement as the fly ash had a higher specific surface area of
430 m2 kg
1 whereas cement had a specific surface area of
360 m2 kg
1. Furthermore, fly ash as a binder reduces the inter-
connecting voids and reduces the thickness of transition zone be-
tween the binder and aggregates [37,38]. Therefore, the concrete
composed of fly ash has lower capillary pores.
3.5. Chloride penetration
Chloride permeability of concrete sample was determined by
rapid chloride permeability test [32]. The amount of charge passed
through the specimens is an indicator of chloride ion penetration
through it. The total amount of charge passing through the sam-
ples of all five mix compositions in two different curing durations
are given in Fig. 5. It can be observed that fly ash samples
exhibited lower chloride permeability for both the curing period
of 28 and 180 d. After 28-d of curing, the chloride ion penetration
is at the moderate level, according to ASTM 1202 standard. With
Fig. 4. Effect of fly ash on sorptivity of concrete.
 A.K. Saha / Sustainable Environment Research 28 (2018) 25e31 29

Fig. 5. Effect of fly ash on chloride permeability.

the addition of fly ash, the chloride permeability of concrete is in a
low category. With the addition of fly ash, the chloride perme-
ability is reduced by 82, 61, 48 and 41% of control samples
respectively, for concrete with 10, 20, 30 and 40% of fly ash con-
tent. After 180-d of curing, chloride permeability reduced signifi-
cantly for all the samples with the mix without fly ash categorised
as low level. Furthermore, 20, 30 and 40% fly ash concrete were in
the very low category as per the ASTM 1202 standard. The addi-
tion of 10, 20, 30 and 40% fly content exhibited 93, 73, 52 and 47%
of chloride ion penetration of control concrete. While the paste
volume is constant for concrete mixtures, the chloride ion
penetration of concrete depends on two primary factors: the
interconnecting voids of concrete; and the free hydroxyl ion in
pore solution. The addition of fly ash reduced the interconnecting
voids due to its higher fineness. The efficiency of class F fly ash has
been well established to reduce the alkaliesilica reaction (ASR) of
mortar and concrete. The addition of fly ash binds the hydroxyl ion
in the pore solution [39] and reduces the alkalinity of pore solu-
tion and thus reduces the aggregate dissolution and mitigate the
ASR [35]. Therefore, fly ash samples exhibit low chloride perme-
ability compared to the control concrete. The results are consistent
with the literature [16,17,22].

Fig. 6. SEM image of FA40.

30 A.K. Saha / Sustainable Environment Research 28 (2018) 25e31
3.6. Microstructure observation
In order to evaluate the high durability of fly ash concrete
microstructural features was investigated by SEM. The micro-
structural morphology of broken concrete with 40% fly ash as a
binder (FA40) after 28-d of curing is shown in Fig. 6a. It can be seen
that ettringite needles begin to generate in the vacant space of the
binder matrix, as well as on the fly ash surface. Smooth spherical fly
ash particles are also noticeable, which indicates the hydration of
fly ash in its initial phase. The partial shape of fly ash is spherical
and the presence of the spherical particles in microstructure in
concrete after 28-d of curing indicates that fly ash particle has not
been reacted with the cement in the initial stage of hydration. The
spherical shape of fly ash gradually decomposes in concrete and
replaced by ettringite needles due to the exposure of aggressive
environment [35,40]. This supports the hypothesis that fly ash re-
duces the rate of hydration in concrete. The microstructure of FA40
after 180-d curing is given in Fig. 6b. It can be seen that due to the
pozzolanic reaction of fly ash, the spherical particles were replaced
by ettringite. A large number of ettringite needles are noticeable in
the voids between the aggregates. Besides, the ettringite needles
are longer and filling the vacant spaces of the binder matrix. Thus,
the pozzolanic reaction of fly ash contentiously fills the voids be-
tween the aggregates by the ettringite needles. Therefore, concrete
containing fly ash creates a denser binder matrix compared to the
conventional concrete.
4. Conclusions
Class F fly ash was used as a partial replacement of binder in
concrete. The concrete mixtures conducted in a controlled envi-
ronment and lime saturated water was used for wet curing and
ambient temperature for air curing. The experimental work eval-
uated the effect of fly ash on the properties of concrete, and the
following conclusions are drawn from the study:
 With the addition of class F fly ash, the compressive strength of
concrete after 28-d curing was lower and decreased sharply
with the increment of fly ash content. However, the compressive
strength of 30 and 40% fly ash concrete increased gradually up to
180 d due to the pozzolanic reaction.
 Fly Ash decreased the rate of hydration thus the drying
shrinkage of fly ash concrete was considerably lower compared
to control concrete.
 With the addition of fly ash, VPVs were minimised corre-
sponding to control concrete in early ages of curing as well as
after six months of curing.
 The inclusion of class F fly ash minimised the sorptivity of
concrete in both initial 28- stage of curing and later stages of
curing at 180 d. The higher specific surface area of fly ash limits
the transition zone between the aggregates. Therefore, the
sorptivity was decreased.
 The fly ash concrete exhibited lower chloride permeability in
both curing durations of 28 and 180 d. This phenomenon was
attributed to the alkali binding and low interconnecting voids
associated with fly ash concrete.
 Microstructural morphology exhibited that the addition of fly
ash improved the density of binder matrix by the pozzolanic
reaction.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded and supported by SLN, New Caledonia.
The author acknowledges the continuous support from SLN
through its research department and its consultant, Mr D.J. Sassoon
Gubbay. The interest and assistance of Associate Professor Prabir
Sarker, Curtin University and Michael G Remias, Manager, BGC
Cemtech to this study are gratefully acknowledged.
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