Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

SUSTAINABILITY IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY BY UTILIZING RICE HUSK ASH IN CONCRETE

M.M. Saravanan and M. Sivaraja

Abstract

Due to ever increasing quantities of waste materials and industrial by-products, solid waste management is the prime concern in the world. One such industrial by-product is Rice Husk Ash (RHA). It can be used in the construction industry as a partial substitute of cement. Rice husk ash is currently being used for many purposes ranging from land- filling to grit blasting, which are not very value added applications. These applications are utilizing only about 10% to 15% of the rice husk ash generated and the residual material is dumped as a waste, which requires large areas of land. The main aim of this research is to study the strength and performance of concrete containing rice husk ash as partial replacement of cement, as opposed to that of normal concrete. For this research work, M40 grade concrete is used and the tests are conducted for various proportions of rice hush ash as partial replacement of cement by 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30%.