Mechanical performance of M30 Grade concrete utilizing NFA and NRHA

Abstract

The largest man made material used in the world is Portland cement concrete. No other material except water is being used in such huge quantities. Portland cement concrete structures exposed to aggressive chemicals, high temperatures, humidity extremes i.e., severe environments tend to deteriorate and the intended service life of the concrete goes down. The production of one tone of OPC consumes 1.5 tonnes of raw material, 80 units of power apart from abatement of about one tonne of CO2 gas into the atmosphere. The production of Portland cement contributes about 7% of world’s total, greenhouse gas‟ CO2 emissions. The deterioration of concrete results in wastage of natural resources used in concrete apart from the monetary loss. In light of the facts that the production of OPC not only cause environmental pollution but also causes depletion of natural resources quickly becoming hindrance for sustainability, there is every need to reduce the OPC content in concrete and use the so called waste material like Rice Husk Ash, fly ash etc., into the concrete to make concrete, greener’. The Rayalaseema Thermal Power Plant (RTPP) located at Muddanur in Kadapa district produces about one million tonnes of fly ash every year, about 25 million tons of rice husk ash is produced in India every year. Many researchers have investigated the characteristics of concrete using fly ash and rice husk ash. But very few of researches have attempted to find the properties of concrete using Nano Rice husk ash and Nano Fly ash. The present investigation results reveal that the uses of Nano fly ash and Nano rice husk ash improve the properties of OPC concrete. It is also observed that the use of Nano fly ash and Nano rice husk ash is effective in improving the mechanical properties like compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength when compared to the micro/ordinary fly ash and rice husk ash. The Nano fly ash and Nano rice husk ash concretes can be used effectively to improve the mechanical properties of M30 grade concrete