Effect of silica fume and red mud on mechanical properties of ferrochrome ash based concrete

Abstract

Partial replacement of cements by industrial wastes are the current trend of preparing sustainable concrete since production of cement produce large amounts of carbon di-oxide and other greenhouse gasses that cause global warming. Ferrochrome Ash (FA) is a byproduct of gas cleaning plant of Ferrochromium industry and past studies established it as a mineral admixture to cement. But in those studies, researchers have used considerable amount of lime for its acceptable performance. Since, production of lime also generates large amount of CO2 and affect the environment, the present study investigates utilization of Ferrochrome ash (FA) without addition of lime, instead supplemented with other industrial waste like Silica fume (SF) and Red mud (RM) as partial replacement of cement. The mechanical properties of the concrete is investigated considering partial replacement of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) by 20%, 22%, 25% and 30% with FA and other industrial waste. Experimental result shows that concrete mix consisting 78% OPC, 19% FA and 3% SF (N78S03), 80% OPC, 10% FA and 10% RM (N80R10) produce comparable compressive strength of normal concrete at 28 days of curing age. However, considering all the mechanical properties of concrete, N78S03 and N80R10 gives better performance than that of other mixes and it was recommended percentage for the concrete.