Fly Ash
Fly Ash
DOI 10.1617/s11527-007-9317-y
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Received: 1 May 2007 / Accepted: 24 September 2007 / Published online: 19 October 2007
RILEM 2007
Abstract The effects of the use of Class F fly ash as of using fly ash as an additional cementitious material
a cement addition on the hardened properties of in recycled aggregate concrete over the use of fly use
recycled aggregate concrete were determined. In this as a replacement of cement.
study, four series of concrete mixtures were prepared
with water-to-cement (w/c) ratios of 0.55, 0.50, 0.45 Keywords Chloride ion penetration
and 0.40. The recycled aggregate was used as 0%, Drying shrinkage Fly ash Mechanical properties
20%, 50% and 100% replacements of coarse natural Recycled aggregate
aggregate. Furthermore, fly ash was employed as 0%
and 25% addition of cement. Although the use of
recycled aggregate had a negative effect on the 1 Introduction
mechanical properties of concrete, it was found that
the addition of fly ash was able to mitigate this This paper forms part of a continuous study on the
detrimental effect. Also, the addition of fly ash influence of fly ash on the hardened properties of
reduced the drying shrinkage and enhanced the recycled aggregate concrete. In our previous study [1],
resistance to chloride ion penetration of concrete the effects of fly ash as a cement substitution on the
prepared with recycled aggregate. Moreover, it was hardened properties of recycled aggregate concrete
found that the drying shrinkage and chloride ion were reported. Before the curing age of 28 day, fly ash
penetration decreased as the compressive strength as a replacement of cement generally decreased the
increased. Compared with the results of our previous compressive strength, tensile splitting strength and
study, the present study has quantified the advantages elastic modulus. However, the partial replacement of
cement by fly ash reduced the drying shrinkage and
creep and enhanced the resistance to chloride ion
S. C. Kou C. S. Poon (&) D. Chan penetration of recycled aggregate concrete.
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, The The influence of using coarse recycled aggregate
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom,
as a replacement of natural aggregate have been well
Kowloon, Hong Kong
e-mail: [email protected] documented in the literature [2–10]. The properties of
concrete prepared with recycled aggregate are gen-
S. C. Kou erally inferior to those of conventional concrete.
e-mail: [email protected]
Nevertheless, the drawbacks of using recycled aggre-
D. Chan gate could be ameliorated by employing a lower
e-mail: [email protected] water-to-cement (w/c) ratio and using fly ash as a
1192 Materials and Structures (2008) 41:1191–1201
Table 1 Chemical
Materials Composition (%)
composition of cement and
fly ash LOI SiO2 Fe2O3 Al2O3 CaO MgO SO3
mineral admixture in the mix design [1]. Although fly 2 Experimental details
ash is commonly used as a cement replacement,
Siddique [11] studied the influence of using Class F 2.1 Materials
fly ash as sand replacement (i.e. as an additional
cementitious material) on the mechanical properties 2.1.1 Cement and fly ash
concrete. The results indicated that, when sand was
replaced by fly ash, the compressive strength, tensile ASTM Type I Portland cement and ASTM Class F
splitting strength, flexural strength and elastic mod- low-calcium fly ash were used in the concrete
ulus of concrete specimens were all higher than those mixtures. The chemical and physical properties of
of concrete without fly ash addition. Furthermore, the cement and fly ash are given in Tables 1 and 2,
mechanical properties of concrete continued to gain respectively.
strength with age at all fly ash addition levels.
This paper, the second part of the same study,
2.1.2 Aggregates
presents the influence of fly ash, when used as an
addition of cement, on the hardened properties of
Natural and recycled aggregates were used as the
recycled aggregate concrete. Four series of concrete
coarse aggregate in the concrete mixtures. In this
mixtures were prepared with water-to-cement (w/c)
study, crushed granite was used as the natural
ratios of 0.55, 0.50, 0.45 and 0.40. In each series,
aggregate and recycled aggregate sourced from a
coarse recycled aggregate was used as 0%, 20%, 50%
recycling facility in Hong Kong was used. The
and 100% replacements of coarse natural aggregate.
nominal sizes of the natural and recycled coarse
Furthermore, fly ash was used as a 25% by weight
aggregates were 20 and 10 mm and their particle size
addition of cement for every recycled aggregate
distributions conformed to the requirements of BS
replacement level.
882 [12]. The physical and mechanical properties of
the coarse aggregate are shown in Table 3. River
sand was used as the fine aggregate in the concrete
Table 2 Physical properties of cement and fly ash mixtures.
Properties Materials
Cement Fly ash 2.1.3 Superplasticizer
Density (g/cm3) 3.16 2.31
For the concrete mixtures in Series II–IV, a sulfo-
Specific surface area (cm2/g) 3519.5 3960
nated naphthalene formaldehyde condensate (Darex
Table 3 Properties of
Type Nominal size Density Water Strength— MIP
natural and recycled
(mm) (kg/m3) absorption (%) 10% porosity (%)
aggregates
fines
value (kN)
Super 20) of Grace Construction Products was used. concrete mixtures, the 10 and 20 mm coarse aggre-
This superplasticizer was available as a dark-brown gates were used in a ratio of 1:2.
40–42% solids aqueous solution with a density of
1,210 kg/m3.
2.3 Specimens casting and curing
The chloride penetrability of concrete was deter- The compressive strengths of the concrete mixtures
mined in accordance with ASTM C1202 [14] using a in Series I–IV are summarized in Tables 8–11. As
50 mm thick · 100[ mm concrete disc cut from the recycled aggregate content increased from 0% to
the 100[ · 200 mm concrete cylinder. The disc 100%, the compressive strength decreased accord-
specimens were fixed between two cells containing ingly. The corresponding reduction in the 28-day
ionic solutions. One of the cells was filled with 0.3 M strength for the concrete mixtures in Series I, II, III
NaOH solution and the other with 3.0% NaCl and IV was 22%, 20%, 23% and 19, respectively.
solution whilst a 60 V DC was applied between the However, the reduction in strength can be either
two cells. The resistance of concrete to chloride ion compensated by a decrease in the w/c ratio or with
penetration is represented by the total charge passed the use of fly ash as an additional cementitious
in coulombs during a test period of 6 h. In this study, material as shown in Fig. 1. For example, if a
the chloride ion penetrability test was carried out on concrete strength of 66 MPa is needed, the concrete
the concrete specimens at the ages of 28 and 90 days. could have a w/c ratio of 0.45 without fly ash and a
recycled aggregate content of about 6%. Alterna-
3 Results and discussion tively, the recycled aggregate content could be
increased from 6% to 33% by adding fly ash as
Unless otherwise specified, the results presented in 25% by weight of cement. If a higher recycled
this paper are the mean values of three measurements. aggregate content is preferred (i.e. 50%), the w/c
Table 10 Compressive strength of the concrete mixtures in Series III (w/c = 0.45)
Notation Fly ash (%) Recycled W/B Compressive strength (MPa)
aggregate (%)
1-day 4-day 7-day 28-day 90-day
50
40
30
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110
Recycled aggregate replacement level (%)
ratio could to be reduced from 0.45 to 0.4 but no mixtures prepared without fly ash. The larger increase
additional fly ash is required. was mainly attributed to the pozzolanic reaction of
Furthermore, when fly ash was added, the gain in the fly ash particles. These results are similar to those
strength of all the concrete mixtures between 28 and of Siddique [11] who reported that, when fly ash was
90 days was greater than that of the concrete used as an addition of cement (i.e. 28% by weight of
Materials and Structures (2008) 41:1191–1201 1197
cement) in concrete, there was a 23% gain in strength Table 12 also demonstrates the advantages of using
from 28 to 91 days compared to the 17% when no fly fly ash as an addition over as a replacement on
ash was added. increasing the splitting tensile strength.
Tables 8 and 10 also show the compressive
strength results of similar concrete mixes that were
prepared with fly ash used as a replacement of cement 3.3 Modulus of elasticity
obtained from our previous study [1]. The compar-
ison clearly demonstrates the benefits of using fly ash The modulus of elasticity measured at 28 and 90 days
as an addition over as a replacement in preparing are shown in Figs. 2 and 3, respectively. The elastic
recycled aggregate concretes. modulus generally decreased with an increase in the
recycled aggregate content but increased with a
decrease in the w/c ratio or with an increase in the
3.2 Tensile splitting strength curing age. The addition of fly ash also increased the
elastic modulus of the concrete mixtures in all mix
The 90-day tensile splitting strengths for the concrete series. The corresponding increase of the 28-day
mixtures in all mix series are shown in Table 12. elastic modulus was 10%, 9%, 14% and 14% for the
Similar to the results of the compressive strength, the concrete mixes prepared with 100% recycled aggre-
tensile splitting strength decreased with an increase in gate in Series I, II, III and IV, respectively. The
the recycled aggregate content. The 90-day tensile relationship between the compressive strength and
strength of concrete prepared with 100% recycled elastic modulus was established as shown in Fig. 4.
aggregates was 12%, 10%, 9% and 10% lower than The equation suggested by ACI 363R-92 (Ec = 3300
that of the conventional concrete in Series I, II, III f0.5
c + 6900) for estimating the elastic modulus in
and IV, respectively. When fly ash was incorporated terms of compressive strength is also shown. It is
as an additional cementitious material, the splitting clear that the ACI equation slightly overestimates the
tensile strength of the concrete mixtures prepared elastic modulus of concrete prepared with recycled
with 100% recycled aggregates increased by 3%, 6%, aggregates.
8% and 8%, respectively, in Series I, II, III, and IV
compared to that without fly ash. The increase in the
tensile splitting strength with fly ash could be 3.4 Drying shrinkage
attributed to the pozzolanic reaction of fly ash and
the possible reduction in porosity as a result of the The drying shrinkage measured at 112 days is shown
densification effect of the fine fly ash particles. in Fig. 5. It was clear that the drying shrinkage of
Similar to the discussion on compressive strength, concrete mixtures increased with an increase in the
Table 12 90-day tensile splitting strength of the concrete mixtures in Series I–IV
Notation Fly ash (%) Recycled Tensile splitting strength (MPa)
aggregate (%)
Series I Series II Series III Series IV
(w/c = 0.55) (w/c = 0.50) (w/c = 0.45) (w/c = 0.40)
25
20
15
10
0
R0 R20 R50 R100 R0F25 R20F25 R50F25 R100F25
Mixtures
30
25
20
15
10
0
R0 R20 R50 R100 R0F25 R20F25 R50F25 R100F25
Mixtures
40
Nevertheless, the increased drying shrinkage could be
28-day static elastic modulus (GPa)
38
36
practically ameliorated by a decrease in the w/c ratio
ACI 363R-92
34 Ec = 3300 fc(0.5)+6900 or employing fly ash as an additional cementitious
32 material. When the w/c ratio was decreased from 0.55
30 to 0.40, the drying shrinkage of the concrete prepared
28 y = 5.7754x0.4086
2
without fly ash and with 0%, 20%, 50% and 100%
26 R = 0.7207
24
recycled aggregate decreased by 20%, 21%, 19% and
22 23%, respectively. On the other hand, for concrete
20 with a w/c ratio of 0.55, the addition of fly ash
30 40 50 60 70 80 90
28-day compressive strength (MPa)
reduced the drying shrinkage of concrete prepared
with 0%, 20%, 50% and 100% recycled aggregate by
Fig. 4 Relationship between 28-day compressive strength and 14%, 13%, 10% and 7%, respectively. The results
28-day elastic modulus
indicated that reducing the w/c ratio from 0.55 to 0.40
was a more effective way to mitigate the drying
recycled aggregate content. The mortar adhered to the shrinkage compared to 25% fly ash by weight
recycled aggregate contributed to an increase in the addition of cement. Since reducing the w/c ratio or
volume of the total paste (old + new), thus increasing adding fly ash in proportioning concrete mixtures
the drying shrinkage of the resulting concrete [15]. basically increased the compressive strength of
Materials and Structures (2008) 41:1191–1201 1199
300
200
100
0
R0 R20 R50 R100 R0F25 R20F25 R50F25 R100F25
Mixtures
concrete, a negative relationship between compres- A significant increase in the resistance to chloride
sive strength and drying shrinkage is therefore ion penetration was resulted when the w/c ratio
established (Fig. 6). This relationship is in good decreased from 0.55 to 0.40. A 53% decrease in the
agreement with the findings by Howells et al. [16] total charge passed measured at 28 days was
who concluded that compressive strength is one of observed for concrete with 100% recycled aggregate
the two most influential parameters affecting the when the w/c ratio dropped from 0.55 to 0.40.
drying shrinkage of concrete. Furthermore, the addition of fly ash significantly
decreased the chloride ion penetration. The formation
of more hydration products as fly ash hydrated might
3.5 Chloride ion penetrability block the ingress path of chloride ions, thus enhanc-
ing the resistance to penetration [18]. The
The chloride ion penetrability of the concrete mix- improvement in the resistance to chloride ion pene-
tures measured at 28 and 90 days is shown in Figs. 7 tration would be further enhanced for concretes with
and 8, respectively. The resistance to chloride ion lower w/c ratios together with the addition of fly ash.
penetration improved as the curing age increased For example, for concrete with 100% recycled
from 28 to 90 days due to the increase in degree of aggregate, the reduction of w/c ratio from 0.55 to
hydration [17]. But a slight increase in chloride ion 0.40 along with the 25% addition of fly ash reduced
penetration was observed when the recycled aggre- the total charge passed from 6,905 to 1,305 Cou-
gate content increased from 0% to 100% due to the lombs, corresponding to an improvement of 81%.
porous nature of the recycled aggregates. Figure 9 shows the comparison of the total charge
passed in coulombs of the concrete mixtures prepared
100 with fly ash used as addition and a replacement of
90
cement at 28 days for concrete mixed prepared with
Compressive strength (MPa)
y = -0.1244x + 117.32
2
R = 0.5884 W/B of 0.55 and 0.45. Again it clearly shows the
80
beneficial effect of using fly ash as an addition.
70
60 y = -0.1212x + 106.25
2
R = 0.6323
50
28 day
4 Conclusions
40 90 day
30
This paper attempts to study influence of fly ash as a
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 cement addition on the properties of recycled aggre-
Drying shrinkage (x10-6)
gate concrete. Based on the results of the research,
Fig. 6 Relationship between strength and drying shrinkage the following conclusions can be drawn:
1200 Materials and Structures (2008) 41:1191–1201
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
R0 R20 R50 R100 R0F25 R20F25 R50F25 R100F25
Mixtures
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
R0 R20 R50 R100 R0F25 R20F25 R50F25 R100F25
Mixtures
2000
1000
0
a-R0F25 a-R20F25 a-R50F25 a-R100F25 r-R0F25 r-R20F25 r-R50F25 r-R100F25
Mixtures
Materials and Structures (2008) 41:1191–1201 1201
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