Characteristic evaluation of concrete containing sugarcane bagasse ash as pozzolanic admixture

This study presents the influence of sugar cane bagasse ash (SCBA) as pozzolanic material on the microstructure, strength and durability properties of concrete. To enhance the pozzolanic properties of raw SCBA, it is incinerated at 6000C for
2 hours in muffle furnace at the rate of 100C/min and ball-milled for 240 minutes to increase its fineness more than cement. SCBA is pre-treated to remove adhered water molecules by heating to 1000C for 24 hours and then it is characterised by SEM/EDS, XRF, FTIR and TGA tests to assess the microstructural properties. In this study cement is replaced by SCBA with 5,10,15,20 and 25% by weight of cement to examine the mechanical and
durability properties of concrete. The optimum dosage of SCBA is determined based on various tests conducted on concrete and it is found to be 15%. The tests conducted are compressive strength, split tensile strength, sorptivity, and acid resistance. A maximum strength gain is observed with 15% replacement of
cement by SCBA with an increment of 14.8%, 20% and 18.2% for compressive strength at 28, 56 and 90 days, respectively, due to enhanced pozzolanic reactivity and improved microstructure of SCBA concrete and split strength is increased in the range of 16% to 18% over the reference concrete mix. The sorptivity of SCBA concrete is found to reduce by 24.4% compared to reference mix at 15% replacement. The mass loss, strength loss, and dimensional loss are studied on concrete samples based on acid resistance test. The SCBA blended concrete with 15% replacement of cement showed the least acid durability lost
factor which is 305.5 with sulphuric acid and 351.72 with hydrochloric acid.