CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction:

In many countries around the world, people live with substandard housing. Due to
insufficient incomes, some are forced to use makeshift housing from scrap material such as
metal, glass, cardboard which creates unsafe & inhuman living condition. If there were way
to create lower cost construction material, adequate housing would become more accessible
to even impoverished population[1].
Sustainable development of the cement and concrete industry requires the utilization
of industrial and agricultural waste components. At present, for a variety of reasons, the
concrete construction industry is not sustainable. Firstly, it consumes huge quantities of
virgin materials which can remain for next generations. Secondly, the principal binder in
concrete is Portland cement, the production of which is a major contributor to greenhouse gas
emissions that are implicated in global warming and climate change. Thirdly, many concrete
structures suffer from lack of durability which may waste the natural resources. So, finding a
solution to substitute a practical recycled product for part of the cement seems to be desirable
for sustainable development[2].
Carbon dioxide emissions are one of the most serious concerns among all greenhouse
gas emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions can be affected by combustion of organic materials
(e.g., wood, coal, oil and other fuels). According to the statistics of the year 1998, 3.1% of the
total CO2 emissions were from the cement manufacturing industry (World Resource
Institute). There exists an urgent need for a reduction in CO 2 emissions and/or recycling of
CO2. An effective method for the reduction of CO2 in the environment is to store carbon
dioxide liberated from various industries and use that for curing of concrete[2].
Recycling of waste components contribute to energy savings in cement production, to
conservation of natural resources, and to protection of the environment. Furthermore, the use
of certain components with potentially pozzolanic reactivity can significantly improve the
properties of concrete. One of the most suitable sources of pozzolanic material among
agricultural waste components is rice husk[2].
Rice husk is an agro-waste material which is produced in about 100 million tons
annually in the world. Approximately 20 kg of rice husk can be obtained for 100 kg of rice.
Rice husks contain organic substances and 20% of inorganic material. Rice husk ash(RHA) is
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obtained from the combustion of rice husk. The most important property of RHA that
determines pozzolanic activity is the amorphous phase content. RHA is a highly reactive
pozzolanic material suitable for use in lime-pozzolana mixes and for Portland cement
replacement. RHA contains a high amount of silicon dioxide, and its reactivity related to lime
depends on a combination of two factors, namely the non-crystalline silica content and its
specific surface[3].
It is worth to mention that the use of RHA in concrete may lead to the improved
workability, the reduced heat evolution, the reduced permeability, and the increased strength
at longer ages[2].
The detailed experimental investigation done to study the effect of partial replacement
of cement with RHA on cement. In this project started proportion form 0% RHA mix
together in concrete by replacement of cement, last proportion taken 25% RHA. Numerous
tests are performed on wet concrete such as workability tests such as compaction factor test
and slump test. The tests on hardened concrete are destructive tests and these includes
compressive test on concrete cube for size (150 x 150 x 150) mm, Flexural strength on
concrete beam (500 x 100 x100) and split tensile strength on concrete cylinder (150 mm ø x
300mm) as per IS: 516 – 1959, IS: 5816 – 1999 and IS: 516 – 1959 respectively[4].
The concrete samples are to be cured for 28 days in normal method to arrive at the
compressive strength and for necessary follow up action. It is not only difficult to dismantle
the suspected portion of concrete at such a stage but also expensive in terms of time and
money. Predicting the strength at the manufacturing stage, however, is yet to receive due
attention of engineers. Hence, any new approach that is capable of predicting reliably the
compressive strength of hardened concrete based on the properties of the ingredients and the
wet concrete will be helpful to practicing engineers. Besides, such tests could be performed
with the same ease as the workability tests. RHA has two roles in concrete manufacture, as a
substitute for cement, reducing the cost and weight of concrete in the production of low cost
building blocks. The work presented in this paper reports an investigation on the behaviour of
concrete produced from blending cement with RHA[4].
Regression analysis method for predicting the 7, 14, 28 days compressive strength of
concrete is presented in this project. The proposed method is aimed at establishing a
predictive relationship between properties and proportions of ingredients of concrete,
compaction factor, weight of concrete cubes and strength of concrete[4].
The term brick refers to small units of building material, often made from fired clay
and secured with mortar, a bonding agent comprising of clay, sand, and water. Brick retains
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heat, with-stands corrosion, and resists fire. This combination material sinter with brick kiln
for rigidity and strengthen. The brick is the main material in construction due to strengthen,
durability, loading, compactness and light weight. All of bricks in Thailand made from
combination between clay and rice husk or saw dust. The Brick’s utility in construction of
Thailand had been used since long time ago. Most of old constructions can confirm the
popularity of brick[5].
Many researchers studied the effect of rice husk to product. The result performs that
addition of rice husk in composition effect to decrease compressive strength and to get more
porosity. The proper temperature of sintering is 1100 degree Celsius[5].
Interlocking Concrete Block Pavement (ICBP) has been extensively used in a number
of countries for quite some time as a specialized problem-solving technique for providing
pavement in areas where conventional types of construction are less durable due to many
operational and environmental constraints. Concrete paver blocks were first introduced in
Holland in the fifties as replacement of paver bricks which had become scarce due to the
post-war building construction boom. These blocks were rectangular in shape and had more
or less the same size as the bricks. During the past five decades, the block shape has steadily
evolved from non-interlocking to partially interlocking to fully interlocking to multiple
interlocking shapes. Consequently, the pavements in which non-interlocking blocks are used
are designated as Concrete Block Pavement (CBP) or non-interlocking CBP, and those in
which partially, fully or multiply interlocking blocks are used are designated as 'Interlocking
Concrete Block Pavement (ICBP)[6].
Solid un-reinforced pre-cast concrete paver blocks are laid on a thin, compacted
bedding material which is constructed over a properly profiled base course and is bounded by
edge restraints/kerb stones. The block joints are filled using suitable fine material. A properly
designed and constructed CBP/ICBP gives excellent performance when applied at locations
where conventional systems have lower service life due to a number of geological, traffic,
environmental and operational constraints. Many number of such applications for light,
medium, heavy and very heavy traffic conditions are currently in practice around the world
[6]
.

1.2 Need:

The cost of construction materials is increasing day by day because of high demand,
scarcity of raw materials, and high price of energy. From the standpoint of energy saving and
conservation of natural resources, the use of alternative constituents in construction materials
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is now a global concern. For this, the extensive research and development works towards
exploring new ingredients are required for producing sustainable and environment friendly
construction materials. The present study investigates the potential use of various solid
wastes in the production of construction materials. Besides, this study gives several examples
on the use of solid waste based construction materials in real construction[7].

1.2.1 Advantages Of Using RHA:

Advantages of using rice husk ash in concrete. The use of RHA in concrete has been
associated with the following essential assets:
 Increased compressive and flexural strengths
 Reduced permeability
 Increased resistance to chemical
 Increased durability
 Reduced effects of alkali-silica reactivity (ASR)
 Reduced shrinkage due to particle packing, making concrete denser
 Enhanced workability of concrete
 Reduced heat gain through the walls of buildings
 Reduced amount of super plasticizer
 Reduced potential for efflorescence due to reduced to calcium hydracids
 Setting time is little bit increased
 Excellent resistance under freeze thaw resistance
 Excellent resistance to chloride ion penetration
 The bleeding of concrete is negligible
 The temperature rise of concrete incorporating RHA is comparable with ordinary
concrete
Due to all above properties of RHA IS 456-2000, have also permitted the usage of
RHA as a partial replacement to cement. RHA is a waste product tops the list in
agricultural waste product. So these available raw material has to be used effectively
in the constructional activity so that ecologically, environmentally it will be useful &
also helps the construction industry to take care of under production of cement[8].

1.3 Objective:
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The objectives and scope of present study are;

 To find the optimum mix design with regards to the amount of water, RHA and
cement ratio.
 To investigate the physical properties of the RHA– density (lightweight), strength
(bending and compression), water absorption and moisture content.
 To study the relative strength development with age of (RHA) concrete with control
concrete.
 Use of agricultural waste in a useful manner.
 To conduct compression test on (RHA) and control concrete on standard IS specimen
size (150 x 150 x 150) mm.
 To conduct Flexural test on (RHA) and control concrete on standard IS specimen size
(100 x 100 x 500) mm.
 To conduct split tensile test on (RHA) and control concrete on standard IS specimen
size (150 mm ø x 300mm) .To provide economical construction material.
 Provide safeguard to the environment by utilizing waste properly.
 The main aim of this project was to compare the compressive strength of the bricks,
so for this purpose different percentage of materials were separately added 4%, 8%,
12% & 16% by weight and then the compressive strength of the Bricks was
established, and then with the help of graph a comparison between compressive
strength of bricks, made out of Rice Husk & conventional bricks[4].

1.4 Theme:
The present study is planned mainly for the following reasons:
 To increase the confidence level of the structural designer and user by carrying out
investigation where in Rice husk-ash concrete is employed as a structural material.
 To increase the proportion of use of Rice husk ash in concrete as alternative materials
in place of cement to take care of both economy and environmental factors.
 To educate the customer and people involved in construction activities towards using
more & more alternative materials in place of conventional materials in constructions
through which they can make great contribution to mankind by avoiding pollution and
saving nature to their coming generation.

 The work presented in this paper reports an investigation on the behaviour of

concrete produced from blending cement with RHA.
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 The physical and chemical properties of RHA were first investigated and compared to
the ordinary Portland cement (OPC).

 Mixture proportioning was performed to produce concrete with target mean strength
of 26.6 MPa for the control mixture.

 A total of 6 concrete mixtures were casted to study the effect of RHA average particle
size (APS) and the level of replacement on the properties of fresh concrete and
compressive strength[9].

1.5 Organization:

This project is organized in the following manner.

Chapter 1 contains introduction of Rice husk ash, necessity and objectives of present project.

Chapter 2 contains a brief review of relevant researches in rice husk ash concrete and bricks.

Chapter 3 includes experimental investigation containing procurement of materials, testing on

procured materials, casting for various proportions and testing.

Chapter 4 contains the performance analysis of the work.

Chapter 5 contains the conclusion of the project and future scope.