A Study on Flexural Behaviour of RCC Beams Containing High Volume Fly Ash

Abstract

Fly ash is a waste product generated by coal burning power plants. The disposal of fly ash is one of the major issues as dumping of fly ash as a waste material may cause severe environmental problems. Fortunately the discovery made several years back that fly ash can be used as a partial replacement for cement in concrete. This paper deals with an experimental study on the mechanical properties of concrete and the flexural behaviour of Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) Beams containing high volume fly ash. In this experiments M20 grade of concrete ( 1:2.3:3.3) is used with w/c ratio 0.556 for various compositions of fly ash replacement to cement (0%, 30%, 50%, and 70%). The test specimens are cast, cured for 28 days and tested under standard conditions. The Comparison of flexural response of beams are made with ordinary portland cement concrete (OPCC) and high volume fly ash concrete (HVFAC) for various compositions of fly ash replacement to cement at the same percentage of reinforcement. After testing it is observed that up to 50% fly ash replacement, the compressive and flexural strength of concrete decreases slightly, but from 50 to 70% the strengths are abruptly fallen and there is no much variation in deflection and it is under serviceability limits as per IS456-2000 up to 70% replacement of cement.