Freeze-thaw resistance of concrete using acid-leached rice husk ash

Abstract

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the freeze-thaw resistance of concrete incorporating acid-leached rice husk ash. The research has been initiated because of its unique microstructural characteristic: rice husk ash maintains the original cellular structure of rice husk that has large amount of empty space, so it has a potential possibility of reducing the air void spacing factor. The freeze-thaw resistance of concrete using rice husk ash is compared to that using silica fume. The result shows that the freeze-thaw resistance of concrete using acid-leached rice husk ash is slightly less than that of silica fume concrete during 300 freeze-thaw cycles. When freeze-thaw cycles are extended to 600 cycles, freeze-thaw resistance of concrete using acid-leached rice husk ash is equivalent to the concrete using silica fume.