Effect of rice husk ash on permeation characteristic of cementitious mortar

Abstract

This paper investigated the effect of rice husk ash (RHA) on chloride permeability, water absorption, and permeable pore space of cementitious mortar. It was observed that the permeability, water absorption, and permeable pore spaces of mortar mixtures having rice husk ash as partial replacement of cement decreased as the amount of rice husk ash increased while the compressive strength increased. The reduction in chloride permeability, water absorption, and permeable pore space ranged between ∼3 to ∼52, ∼2 to 10%, and ∼2% to 18% with 4% to 12% RHA dosages without RHA mixture. In addition, linear co-relation exists between water absorption and permeable pore space and permeable pore space and charge pass with a coefficient of correlation of 0.93 and 0.90, respectively; quadratic polynomial co-relation exists between compressive strength and water absorption and compressive strength and permeable pore space.