Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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A study on the substitution of rice husk ash with natural sand of

cement concrete
Shekhar Singh a, Vinit Kumar a, Arun Kumar Parashar b, *
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Moradabad Institute of Technology, Moradabad UP 24400, India
b
Civil Engineering Department, GLA University, Mathura, UP 281406, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Researchers from all around the world are currently investigating the feasibility of utilizing agricultural and/or
Rice Husk Ash industrial wastes as a resource for the building sector. In addition to saving money, recycling these materials
Natural Sand could aid in making the planet a cleaner, greener place to live. Fibrous waste products such as sugar cane bagasse
Flexural Strength
and ethanol vapour are produced during the sugar refining process. In this study, fine aggregate in concrete was
Compressive Strength
Split Tensile Strength
replaced with rice husk ash at the volumetric percentages of 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%. Testing was done on
both fresh concrete, using methods like the slump cone test, and on hardened concrete, using methods like the
compressive strength, split tensile strength, and flexural test. The slump value of the samples was found to
decrease when the rice husk ash level enhanced. Up to 20% substitution of rice husk ash with fine aggregates
resulted in an improvement in mechanical characteristics.

1. Introduction extremely reactive is created when burning RHA under regulated

conditions.
Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) must be less expensive in order to The silica in this RHA is non-crystalline or amorphous, with a silica
produce apartment buildings for the men, which has sparked study into concentration of up to 95 %. The reactivity is due to the presence of a
the use of various locally available materials that could be used as a significant proportion of amorphous silica and a large surface area
partial replacement for OPC in building works and civil engineering governed by the porous structure of the particles. The responsiveness of
work [1]. Several studies [2–4] have looked into the viability of using the material is generally improved by increasing the RHA’s fineness
binary mixtures of Ordinary Portland Cement and various pozzolans for [6,7]. Despite the relatively low strength of the cementitous material
use in cement composites. Several studies have demonstrated the made by combining RHA or RSA with lime, laterite can be stabilised and
effectiveness of rice husk ash (RHA), a byproduct of the agricultural its bearing strength increased using this material [5]. For instance,
sector, as a pozzolan. Researchers examined the effectiveness of RHA Rukzon et al. (2009) examined how grinding changed the chemical and
and OPC concrete in lowering the temperature of high-strength mass physical characteristics of rice husk ash and how the fineness of the RHA
concrete and discovered that RHA was significantly superior. RHA, affected the characteristics of mortar and discovered that finer RHA
which contains finer particles than OPC, is used in concrete to improve particles led to a stronger pozzolanic response.
qualities, including reduced water absorption values and better In order to find out whether replacing 10 %, 20 %, 30 %, and 40 % of
compressive strength at higher substitution volumes. RHA can be the fine aggregate with rice husk ash by volume will affect the
ground to increase its pozzolanicity and create high-strength RHA and compressive, flexural, and split tensile strengths of fresh concrete at 7
RSA concrete, enabling the construction of blocks with high bearing and 28 days, experiments were carried out. A considerable deal of
strength even in rural areas. For many years, especially in developing investigation and research has been done as a result of the requirement
countries, research has focused on the use of RHA as a highly reactive for a thorough understanding of the impact that various alternatives
pozzolanic component in the manufacturing of concrete. Depending on would have on the characteristics of concrete. Concretes that contain
the incineration method, the quantity of heat supplied, the location, and discarded glass have high compressive, tensile, and flexural strengths,
the ash’s particle size, the ash has various properties. RHA that is according to Park et al. As a result, they rank among the earliest

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Kumar Parashar).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2023.08.381
Received 14 June 2023; Received in revised form 18 August 2023; Accepted 27 August 2023
2214-7853/Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 14th International
Conference on Materials, Processing & Characterization – ICMPC 2023.

Please cite this article as: Shekhar Singh et al., Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2023.08.381
S. Singh et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 1 absorption.
Chemical Composition of Cement and Rice Husk Ash.
Compound Name Rice Husk Ash (%) Cement (%) 2. Materials
Silica 83.25 28.44
Alumina 1.42 7.34 To conduct this study, regular Portland cement (Grade 53) was used.
Ferric Oxide 2.11 4.54 Cement had a regular consistency and a specific gravity of 3.12 %. Guru
Calcium Oxide 0.58 45.12 Corporation, Prahlad Nagar Ahmedabad supplies the rice husk ash used
Magnesium Oxide 0.78 1.14 in the study. Ash from burning rice husk (RH) has a strong reactivity and
Sulphur Tri Oxide – –
Loss of Ignition 5.92 2.42
pozzolanic characteristic, with a specific gravity of 2.24 and a bulk
Chloride – – density of 0.764 g/cc. As the RHA is burned, its chemical composition
changes. Table 1 indicated the chemical composition of cement and rice
husk ash. The sand utilized is river sand that is readily available in the
area and complies with Indian zone III standards. The density of sand is
Table 2
Mix Id. 2.67 on the specific gravity scale. The bulk densities of fine aggregate in
both its loose and rodded states are 1520 kg/m3 and 1590 kg/m3,
Sample ID Rice Husk Ash (%) Natural Sand (%)
respectively. Fine aggregate is defined as fractions between 4.75 mm
NC 0 100 and 150 mm. Crushed aggregates with a nominal 20 mm size and a
NRH10 10 90
specific gravity of 2.32 are used. The bulk density varies between 1640
NRH20 20 80
NRH30 30 70 and 1870 kg/m3 when the material is either loose or rodded. Mix Id was
NRH40 40 40 shown in Table 2.

3. Methodology
materials produced by mankind. Containers, flat sheets, bulbs, and
cathode ray tubes are just a few of the many shapes and forms that glass The sieve analysis of rice husk ash is performed according to the
is made in. Since each of them has a short lifespan, it is necessary to Indian standard process, and the results are then used in the mix design
recycle or repurpose them in order to avoid causing environmental harm to produce concrete with the desired strength and quality. After the
by disposing of them in landfills [8]. Glass is an example of a material slump cone test is performed on the concrete to determine its work­
that is completely recyclable and may, in theory, be recycled endlessly ability criteria, cubes of concrete are cast for further examination. It was
without experiencing any quality degradation. As cullet in the glass­ calculated that rice hush ash would need to replace the sand in a mix at a
making process, in sandblasting, as a concrete aggregate replacement rate of 0 %, 10 %, 20 %, 30 %, and 40 % by volume. Both the super­
(as a pozzolanic additive), in road beds, pavement, and parking lots, as plasticizer concentration and the water-cement ratio were held steady at
raw materials to produce glass pellets or beads used in reflective paint 0.35 and 0.9 %, respectively. Standard laboratory conditions were used
for highways, as raw materials to produce fibre glass, and as fraction­ to cure the cast concrete specimens for 7, 14, and 28 days before testing
ators for lighting matches and firing ammunition are just a few examples began. In total, three samples of cured concrete were analysed after each
of how waste glass has been successfully recycled. When it comes to of the four time periods. The samples used in the compressive strength
recycling discarded glass and other industrial wastes, the construction test were 150 mm cubes, while the samples used in the split tensile
sector has made significant strides [13]. This garbage might be turned strength test were 150 mm in diameter and 300 mm in height, both in
into aggregate, which would not only free up space in landfills but also accordance with Indian specifications.
lessen the need to harvest natural raw materials for use in construction
projects. The implications that these alternatives might have on the 4. Result and discussion
properties of concrete have been the subject of extensive research and
analysis. 4.1. Slump value
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of varying
percentages of waste glass powder used in place of sand in freshly mixed According to the guidelines provided in IS: 1199–1959, a slump test
concrete (5, 10, 15, and 20 %). The study was indicated that the use of was used to assess the workability of all mixtures made using various
waste glass powder affected the concrete’s strength and water amounts of rice husk ash. It is clear from Fig. 1 that as the amount of rice

Fig. 1. Slump Values of Samples.

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Fig. 2. Compressive Strength of Samples.

Fig. 3. Split Tensile Strength of Samples.

husk ash in concrete mixtures increased, so did their workability. The strength that was 17.44 % greater than typical concrete.
capacity of rice husk ash to absorb additional water may be the cause of
the decrease in the mix’s ability to be worked. Rice husk ash absorbs 4.3. Split tensile strength
water, reducing the amount of water that is available for mixing and, as
a result, the workability. The tensile rupture susceptibility of geopolymer concrete was eval­
uated using this test that was carried out. Cylinder samples of 150 mm in
4.2. Compressive strength diameter and 300 mm in height were subjected to the radial load. The
results of the split tensile test are depicted in Fig. 3.
Compression strength testing was done on the concrete samples in When the quantity of rice husk ash in the mix was raised up to 20 %
order to determine the potential capacity of the samples. Specimens with replacement with sand, Fig. 3 illustrates that the values for splitting
dimensions of 150 mm x 150 mm x 150 mm are subjected to a load that tensile strength were enhanced in the same way as those for compression
is delivered at an angle of 90 degrees to each side. The results of a strength. This improvement occurred for the same reason as those for
compressive test on samples made up of various ratios of sand and rice compression strength. This happened in the same manner as when there
husk ash powder are shown in Fig. 2. was a rise in the compression strength. After a period of 28 days of
The compressive strength of sand at replacement levels of 0 %, 10 %, testing, the split tensile strength of the NC, NRH10, NRH20, NRH30, and
20 %, 30 %, and 40 % of rice husk ash was measured at 36.62, 38.48, NRH40 samples was determined, and the results were 4.22 MPa for the
43.01, 38.75, and 35.62 MPa after curing for a period of 28 days. Ac­ NC sample, 4.34 MPa for the NRH10 sample, 4.62 MPa for the NRH20
cording to the data shown before, the use of rice husk ash in place of fine sample, 4.45 MPa for the NRH30 sample, and 4.26 MPa for the NRH40
aggregates resulted in a 20 % increase in the compressive strength of the sample. When compared to the other samples, the ones that contained
material. After curing for 28 days, the concrete had an increased 20 % rice husk ash had the biggest increase in strength.

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Fig. 4. Flexural Strength.

4.4. Flexural strength 6. Future scope

After one, two, and four weeks of curing, generated samples were put Researcher used any agricultural waste in place of fine aggregate and
through universal testing equipment so that their flexural strength could coarse aggregate for preparing the concrete. The natural sources are
be evaluated. The test was carried out using the three-point load tech­ limited for the construction industry so we are trying to use some waste
nique, which was prescribed by International Standard 516–1959. Fig. 4 material in place of aggregates and cement.
depicts the results of tests conducted to determine the flexural strength
of the material. CRediT authorship contribution statement
Fig. 4 indicates that the values for flexural strength became improved
in the same way that those for compression strength did when the Shekhar Singh: Data curation, Writing – original draft. Vinit
amount of rice husk ash in the mix was increased up to 20 % replace­ Kumar: Writing – review & editing, Data curation. Arun Kumar Par­
ment with sand. This improvement occurred for the same reason as that ashar: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing.
which occurred for the improvement in compression strength. After 28
days of curing, the flexural strength of NC, NRH10, NRH20, NRH30, and Declaration of competing interest
NRH40 was 5.84 MPa, 5.92 MPa, 6.24 MPa, and 5.87 MPa, respectively.
When the percentage level of bagasse was increased beyond 20 %, it was The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
discovered that the flexural strength became lower. When compared to interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
regular concrete after 28 days, the flexural strength of rice husk ash the work reported in this paper.
concrete showed an increase of 6.84 % at a 20 % substitution level of rice
husk ash for sand. References

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