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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 GENERAL

Different strategies are required from the developed and developing

countries along with an incentive structure that encourages conservation and
discourages the scavenging of nature. The search for a cementitious material
which resists against nature has started long back. Romans and Greeks were
aware that certain volcanic deposits when finely ground and intermixed with
lime and sand has yielded mortars which possessed good strength and
durability. Romans also identified similar material with corresponding
characteristics from the neighborhood of Pozzuoli and so such materials
acquired the name Pozzolan.

The history of construction practices indicates that the subjects of

pozzolans are millennia old. Pozzolans are usually defined as siliceous or
siliceous and aluminous materials which though not cementitious themselves,
react with lime in finely divided form with water and under ordinary
temperature and form stable and insoluble mineralogical phases processing
cementitious characteristics.

Pozzolans can be categorized as natural and artificial. While

volcanic tuffs, Diatomaceous earths are classified under natural pozzolans,
burnt clay, shale’s, and fly ash are defined under artificial pozzolans.
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Power stations, using coal like fuel are worldwide. Energy sources
and consequently high quantities of fly ashes are nowadays generated. When
pulverized coal is burnt, each coal particle undergoes reactions independently,
variations in specified combustion conditions to which each coal particle is
exposed to and the efficiency of combustion that is subjected to make fly ash
heterogeneous material. Hence the chemical composition of fly ash depends
upon the source of coal and also on operating parameters of the boilers thus
varying from source to source. Only a small part of these ashes are used
effectively rest of the ash is dumped as land fill in many places. The disposal
of the fly ash which is a serious hazard to the environment consumes millions
of rupees towards the cost of its disposal.

1.2 FLY ASH

In India coal/lignite based thermal power stations account for more

than 55% of the electricity installed capacity and 65% of electricity
generation. The proximate and ultimate analysis of coal mined from India
show that the content of ash in coal is around 40-50%. Disposal of solid
wastes from power plant industries that uses coal for production poses great
environmental problem. As per the estimation of Government of India, power
plants are going to use 1800 million tons of coal that may result in 600
million tons of fly ash by 2031-2032 (Singh 2011). Coupled with this, the
deteriorating quality (increasing ash quantity) of coal is expected to aggravate
the situation (Swamy 1961), Bhattacharjee et al 2002). Approximately 80%
of the coal ashes and metallurgical slags produced today end up either in low
–value applications such as landfills and base course for roads, or simply
disposed of by ponding and stock piling. Disposal in this manner is not only
wasteful but also harmful because it contributes to land, air and ground water
pollution. Also these industrial by-products generally contain small amounts
of toxic metals. The concrete construction industry should be a preferred
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vehicle for their disposal because most of the harmful metals can be
immobilized and safely incorporated into the hydration products of cement.
Owing to large size, the concrete industry is logically the ideal home for safe
and economic disposal of millions of tones of available coal ash (Kumar
2001).

Fly ash, when used in concrete, contributes to the strength of

concrete due to its pozzolanic reactivity. However, since the pozzolanic
reaction proceeds slowly, the initial strength of fly ash concrete tends to be
lower than that of concrete without fly ash (Lamond 1950-1967,1983). Due to
continued pozzolanic reactivity concrete develops greater strength at later age,
which may exceed that of concrete without fly ash. It should be noted that
pozzolanic reaction can proceed only in the presence of water. Enough
moisture should be available for long time. Therefore fly ash concrete should
be cured for longer periods. In this sense, fly ash concrete used in under
water structures such as dams will derive full benefits of attaining improved
long term strength and water tightness.

On the other hand cement production is another high energy

consuming process and it has been found that about 0.9 t of CO 2 is produced
for 1 t of cement. India is the second-largest cement producer in the world,
with an installed capacity of about 236 million tonnes (MT) in 2009–2010.
The sector is expected to add an additional capacity of 92.3 MT by 2013. As a
result, the industry will have a total installed capacity of 383.5 MT by March
2013(IBEF 2011).

The Indian cement industry has outpaced the growth rates of other
prominent industries in the country on the back of growing demand from the
housing sector, increased activity in infrastructure development and exports
recovery. Recent industry developments and government supportive policies
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are attracting global cement giants and sparking off a spate of mergers and
acquisitions to spur growth. The Indian cement industry sustained its growth
rate even in the tough condition of economic slowdown. Almost all cement
majors expanded their installed capacity in the backdrop of government
backed construction projects since these projects have created strong demand
for cement in the country. Moreover, it is anticipated that industry players will
continue to increase their annual cement output in coming years and the
country’s total cement production will grow at Compound Annual Growth
Rate (CAGR)of around 10.5% during 2010-11-2013-14. The production of
one tone of cement requires 1.55 to 1.6 tonnes of good quality raw materials.
These raw materials are primarily good quality limestone and clay. To make
concrete more “green” we can make use of more fly ash in cement.

The use of High Volume Fly Ash concrete (HVFA) in construction

is a solution to environmental degradation being caused by cement industry.
The concept fits very much into the era of sustainable development. As
cement industry, itself, is responsible for 7% of world’s carbon dioxide
emissions,(Kumar 2002)responsible for global warming, attention needs to
be drawn by construction industry to solve the problem. High volume fly ash
concrete mix contains lower quantities of cement and higher volumes of fly
ash (up to 60%) From the literature available, it is found that the proportions
of fly ash in Concrete can vary from 30% to 80% for various grades of
concrete. But the use of HVFA is more adaptable in a batching plant where
the control of water for mixing can be strictly controlled and with the use of
water reducing agents and super plasticizers to impart the required
workability Swamy et al (1983), Tarun et al (1991), Rafat (2003). But this
will add to the cost of concrete production and improved quality control.
Another solution is the use of fly ash by modifying the properties of fly ash to
suit the industry.
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1.3 NEED FOR THE INVESTIGATION

In India, the application of fly ash in concrete for construction in

building industry is the need of the hour to reduce the menace due to fly ash
disposal and to reduce the carbon dioxide emission from cement producing
plants .For increasing the utilization rate of the by-product fly ash, it is
necessary to fully explore its dynamic and pozzolanic potential, but also to
come up with methods of enhancing its slow reaction. This task however
becomes difficult when dealing with a very heterogeneous product, where not
all streams are the same, chemically or physically, and furthermore, when the
effect of each of those parameters on the hydration of fly ash/cement systems
has not yet been completely understood.

In the past, several activation techniques have been adopted by

numerous researchers to deal with fly ash shortcomings. The principal aim of
these attempts was to enhance the reactivity of the pozzolan, so as to improve
the mechanical and durability properties of the final product. Methods like
chemical activation, mechanical activation and thermal activation are in
vogue. The mechanical activation through grinding and thermal activation
through heating certainly improves the quality. These methods need improved
technology and machinery at the same time the chemical properties like pH
and corrosion inhibition are not improved much.

Chemical activation enhances the effectiveness of fly ash in cement

concrete thereby increasing its corrosion tolerance. Fly ash can be activated
by chemicals like gypsum, sodium sulphate and calcium chloride.
Researchers like , Baton (1995), Caijun (1996), Yueming [Link] (1999), Shi and
Day (2000) Zhaohui and Yunping (2001), Arjunan et al(2001), Quan (2001),
Saraswathy et al (2002), Caijun and Yixin (2002), Lee et al (2003), Caijun
Shi and Quian (2003), Smith (2003), Fernandez et al (2005), Palomo et al
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(2004), Palomo et al (2005) and Antiohos et al (2006), Conducted studies

using activated fly ash.

Although many researchers have carried out studies in the micro

structural development by chemical activation and its performance, studies
available for the structural behavior of chemically activated fly ash concrete
and its durability aspects are in infant stage.

1.4 SCOPE OF THE PRESENT STUDY

The objective of the present investigation is to improve the quality

of fly ash by chemical treatment and to study the flexural behavior of
reinforced cement concrete beams. For this project work, the chemicals like
sodium silicate, calcium oxide are used to activate the fly ash. In this study,
the material properties of activated fly ash like compressive strength, split
tensile strength, flexural strength and durability properties has been studied
with 10%, 20%, 30%,40%,50% and 60 % of replacement with cement with
activated fly ash concrete in the phase I part of the study and in the second
phase of the present investigation structural element beam was studied to
evaluate the performance of activated fly ash concrete in flexure and shear.
The durability aspect of activated fly ash concrete was evaluated for corrosion
of reinforcement as it is one major concern in RC structures. To evaluate how
the new material behave in contact with steel reinforcement corrosion study
was done.

1.5 OBJECTIVES

To improve the reactivity of fly ash by chemical activation.

To evaluate the mechanical properties of activated fly ash

concrete like compressive, flexural and split tensile strengths
and to find the optimum replacement for strength.
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To get a regression model for compressive strength and split

tensile strength of AFA Concrete

To perform experimental and theoretical study on the behaviour

of activated fly ash concrete beams in flexure and shear.

To evaluate the corrosion potential of activated fly ash

concrete by half cell potential study , impressed voltage study.

To develop numerical model for beams using ANSYS

software to predict the behaviour of beams.

1.6 THESIS ORGANISATION

The seven areas of the literature that were particularly important to

the conduct of the research are reviewed in Chapter 2 of the thesis. These
areas are fly ash, activated fly ash, materials property study, durability study,
beam study, analytical modeling and corrosion study.

Chapter 3 describes the experimental program on the mechanical

properties along with numerical results. Chapter 4 describes the mathematical
modeling and theoretical models for predicting the split tensile strength and
modulus of elasticity of FA and AFA concrete. Chapter 5 describes the
experimental program on beams. Behavior of the beam during loading is
discussed and the results of the testing program are used to develop analytical
models. Chapter 6 describes the corrosion study on AFA concrete.

Simulations of the beams under static loading are performed in

Chapter 7 using commercially available Finite Element Package ANSYS
Version 11. Results from simulations were compared with theoretical and
experimental study. Chapter 8 gives the result and discussions and Chapter 9
gives the over view and conclusions from this study together with
recommendations and suggestions for future research.