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Parameters Affecting Alkali Activated Concrete with

Fly Ash and Rice Husk Ash
Prof. Sonal Thakkar1, Jay Patel 2, Eesh Kumar Taneja3, Gulam Jilani4
1
( Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering Department, Institute of Technology, Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India)
2,3,4
(M.tech & B. Tech Student, Civil Engineering Department, Institute of Technology, Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat,
India)

Abstract: Cement production is highly energy intensive and Alkali activated concrete uses waste materials like fly ash,
involves large amount of energy for production and releases slag, RHA, which are reacted with alkali reagents to form a
large release of carbon dioxide. Alkali activated concrete is a stable compound.
concrete produces which is produced using rice husk ash and fly
ash combination. Sodium based alkaline activators were used. As In the country like India where power is produced by burning
both materials rice husk ash and fly ash are available in coal, fly ash the waste product of power station is available in
abundance and are used for landfill conversion of these into abundance. It is used marginally to replace cement, but is still
useful product is sustainable and environmental friendly. Effect used as landfill disposal. According to government estimate,
of parameters affecting mix design like molarity, alkaline ratio generation of fly ash is expected to reach about 225 million
and ratio of alkaline ratio to cementitious material are evaluated.
tons by 2017. Government of India, along with Department
Keywords- Alkali activated concrete, Fly ash, Rice husk ash, of science and technology and various other departments is
alkaline ratio, molarity trying to increase the utilization of fly ash. It’s utilization is
increased from 45 million tons in 2005 to 73.13 million tonne
Table1- Nomenclature in 2010-2012, which is roughly 50% of its generation.
Government desires to achieve 100% utilization in coming
RHA Rice husk ash years [6].
FA Fly Ash
AAC Alkali activated concrete India being a agricultural country, rice husk ash constitutes
20% of the 500 million tons of paddy produced in the world.
I. INTRODUCTION 75% organic volatile matter and balance 25% of the weight of
this husk is converted into ash during the burning process
I t is a well known fact that cement is most widely used
material in the construction material [1]. Production of
cement is highly energy intensive process and consumes lot of
known as rice husk ash. Rice husk ash contains very high
amount of silica content and is found to be amorphous in
nature. The amorphous silica contained in RHA can react with
energy. Besides this, it is not environmentally sustainable as
cementitious binders to perform pozzolanic activity [7].
production of one ton of cement produces equivalent amount
of carbon dioxide in atmosphere. Globally it is assumed that Since rice husk ash and fly ash both are in abundance its
by 2025 the cement industry will be emitting CO 2 at the rate effective utilization as building material will lead to
of 3.5 billion tones/year, more or less equal to total emission sustainable development. In alkali activation, reaction shown
made by “transport and energy sector” of today’s Europe in figure 1 takes place. Alkali activation generally takes place
[2,3]. It is believed that Portland cement has contributed with source material rich in alumina and silica reacting with
immensely in development of building technology and alkaline solution consisting of sodium or potassium hydroxide
material science fields and has led to faster development of with sodium or potassium silicate [8].
economic growth. For sustainable development, cement
industry and faces important challenges of reduction of n( Si2O5, Al2O2 ) + 2nSiO2 + 4nH2O +NaOH/KOH
particulate matter and emission levels [4]. It is important to Na+, K++ n(OH)3 -Si-O-Al___-O-Si-(OH)3
find substitute of cement concrete and hence one of the
alternative is alkali activated concrete. Geopolymer concrete (Si-Al materials)
as proposed by Davidovits in 1988, offers a good alternative Geopolymer precursor
and lot of research potential. Geopolymer concrete uses waste -
materials like fly ash which is available throughout the world n(OH)3-Si-O-Al -O-Si-(OH)3 + NaOH/KOH
in abundance and hence it reduces the CO2 emission to (OH)2
atmosphere by about 80% [5]. There are many technologies
envisaged for replacement of cement as building material, one
of which is alkali activated concrete or geopolymer concrete.

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( Na+, K+)-(-Si-O-Al_-O-Si-O-) + 4nH2O 1 Colour - Light Grey -

2
(OH)2 2 Specific Surface area m / kg 416.36 320 min.

Fig1- Polymerization process 3 Loss of Ignition % 1.05 5.0 max.

4 SiO2 + Al2O3 + % 93.02 70 min.

II. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE Fe2O3
5 SiO2 % 61.40 35 min.
Present investigation aims to utilize rice husk ash which is a
waste product effectively into useful building material. 6 CaO % 5 7.0 max.
Gujarat produces lot of rice from which rice husk ash is 7 SO3 % 0.56 3.0 max.
produced but it is not used due to improper burning of husk
and this leads to poor quality of husk. Concrete with alkali 8 Na2O % 0.62 1.5 max.
activation of M 25 grade using fly ash and rice husk ash was 9 Reactive Silica % 34.36 20 min.
attempted and parameters affecting the alkali activation was
found. 10 Total Chlorides % 0.03 0.05 max.

11 Moisture % 0.10 2.0 max.

III. LITERATURE REVIEW
12 Passing on 45 % 91.86 66 min.
Ambily et. al [9] used combination of slag and rice husk ash. Micron sieve (Wet
Rice husk ash was in form of micronized biomass silica and sieving)
sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate were used as alkaline 13 Retention on 45 % 8.14 34 max.
Micron sieve (Wet
activator. Variation of micronized biomass silica was done sieving)
from 0% upto 30% and various properties of fresh concrete
14 Pozzolanic Activity % 82.44 80 min.
like slump, density and compressive strength were tested and Index
evaluated. It was found that 10% replacement gave higher
compressive strength. Table 3- Properties of rice husk ash
Nuruddin et. al. [10] conducted studies on compressive Sr. Characteristics Test Requirement as per
strength and bond strength of fly ash and rice husk ash based No. Results IS standard-12089-1987
geopolymer concrete. Rice husk ash was microwave 1 Color Dim gray -
incinerated.. They observed that under temperature curing due
2 Specific surface area 293 275 (min)
to incorporation of RHA the strength increased as refinement (m2/ kg)
of pore structure occurred. 3 Loss on Ignition (%) 4.51 3 (max)

Bernal. et. al. [11] studied mechanical and structural changes 4 SiO2 (%) 89.84 -
induced by high temperature exposure of paste made from 5 Al2O3+Fe2O3 (%) 2.45 -
rice husk ash and silica fume combined with slag. They found
that paste samples had strength more than 50 MPa and 6 Specific Gravity 2.23 -
retained the same strength upto 600 °C.
Alkaline Solutions:
IV. EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM Sodium Hydroxide was obtained in form of flakes with 98%
purity and was dissolved in tap water depending on the
Material used in the investigation were fly ash and rice husk concentration of solution, expressed in terms of Molarity (M).
ash. For making 12 M solution, 12 * 40 = 480 grams of sodium
4.1 Material specification hydroxide flakes were dissolved in water. Sodium silicate was
in liquid form with 15.5 % of Na2O, 35.4% of SiO2 and 45.9%
Source Materials: of water. Sodium silicate had ratio of SiO2/Na2O as 2.23 and
Fly ash of class F was used in the investigation. Fly ash was specific gravity of 1.58.
obtained from Ukai Thermal Power Plant. GGBFS was
obtained from JSW cement plant and is given in Table 2, Super Plasticizer:
while RHA was obtained from local industry is given in Table Naphthalene based superplasticizer was used for increasing
3. the workability of geopolymer concrete.
Table 2- Properties of fly ash
Aggregates:
Fly Ash
Coarse aggregates of 20 mm and 10 mm were used which
Sr. Particulars Unit Test Specification were locally available and had specific gravity of 2.7 while
No. Results (IS:3812:2003) fine aggregates was in form of sand confirming to Zone II.

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4.2 Preparation of Concrete This paper evaluates effect of different parameters on

compressive strength
The solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate were
used as alkaline solutions in the present investigation.
4.3.1 Effect of Alkaline Ratio to Cementitious Material
Commercial grade sodium hydroxide in pellets form and
sodium silicate solution were used which was dissolved to Amount of alkaline ratio to cementitious material decides,
form alkaline solution and it was prepared one day prior to amount of cementitious material that will give required
casting of concrete strength . Figure 2 shows that for 10 M solution as the
alkaline ration to cementitious ratio increases from 0.3 to 0.4
As there are no code provisions for the mix design of alkali
and as alkaline ratio increases from 1.5 to 2.5 compressive
activated concrete, the density of alkali activated concrete was
strength increases.
assumed as 2400 Kg/m3. The rest of the calculations was
done by considering the density of concrete. The total volume
occupied by fine and coarse aggregate is adopted as 75%.The Effect of Alakline to cementatious
conventional method used in the making of normal concrete is
adopted to prepare geopolymer concrete [12]. Ratio for 10 M solution
In order to achieve equivalent compressive strength of M25
grade of alkali activated concrete for fly ash and rice husk ash, 17.7 18.8
20 17.3

Compressive Strenght in MPa

various permutation and combination were done by keeping 15.2
13.7 13.6
the above parameters constant and varying the alkaline 15
10.4 10.8
solution to cementitious material ratio, molarity of sodium 9.3
10
hydroxide and sodium silicate to sodium hydroxide solution
ratio with different trial mixes. 5
Different Proportion of RHA was mixed with FA but it was 0
found that increase in RHA percentage led to decrease in 1.5 2 2.5
strength and hence RHA percentage was restricted to 5%
Alkaline ratio
along with FA. Rice Husk Ash is produced mainly be cooling
suddenly and unevenly and hence reactivity of RHA is very
less. Table 4 shows initial parameters to be taken for mix alkaline to cementious ratio = 0.3 0.35 0.4
design.
Table 4- Mix proportion of AAC with RHA Figure 2: Compressive Strength for 10 M solution

Density of concrete 2400 kg/m3 For 12 M solution as the alkaline to cementitious material
RHA 21.4 kg/m 3 increases from 0.3 to 0.4, there is increase in compressive
strength of alkali activated concrete as shown in Figure 3.
FA 407.14 kg/m3
Coarse aggregate
20 mm 702 kg/m3 Effect of Alkaline to
Compressive Strength

10mm 468 kg/m3

Fine aggregate 630 kg/m3 cementatious Ratio for 12
Rest period
Curing temperature
24 hrs
60°C
M solution
in MPa

Admixture 1.5% 40 29.6

28.4 25.3
24.3
Water 42.85 kg/m3 30 20.923.3 19.4 18.9
16.7
20
Quantity of fly ash and rice husk ash as per mix proportion 10
was measured and allowed to dry mix. After that dry mixing,
0
solution and admixture was added and wet mix was carried
1.5 2 2.5
out. Oven curing is more preferable in alkali activated
concrete. In this investigation, temperature was kept at 60°C.
Cubes were kept for 24 hours in oven after 1 day of rest Alkaline ratio
period.
alkaline to cementious ratio = 0.3 0.35 0.4
4.3 Parameters affecting mix design of AAC
Figure 3: Compressive strength of AAC for 12 M solution.

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4.3.2 Effect of Molarity: V. CONCLUSION

Molarity of mix is important parameter. Higher molarity This concrete will be sustainable as it will it will help in
indicates more use of sodium hydroxide. Optimum use should solving the problem of industrial waste and also will help in
be made to have economy in mix design and strength. As converting rice husk ash into a useful product. Present
shown in figure 4 as molarity of solution increase, i.e. amount investigation shows parameters that effect compressive
of sodium hydroxide increases compressive strength strength of alkali activated concrete. It also shows increase in
increases. Figure 4 is for alkaline ratio to cementitious ratio of compressive strength with increase in molarity but optimum
0.3. strength can be obtained at 12 M solution. Also optimum
alkaline ratio is 2 with alkaline ratio is 0.4 at which optimum
strength is obtained. Rice husk ash and fly ash combination
Effect of Molarity can be used to produce concrete which can be used for non-
25 structural work.
21.4
Strength MPa

20.2
Compressive

19.418.9 18.5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

20 16.7
The authors are grateful to Nirma University, for funding the
15
10.8 present investigation under Minor Research Project.
9.310.4
10
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Alkaline Ratio

10 M 12 M 14 M

Figure 5: Comparative results of AAC with different

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