Fresh and hardened properties of self-compacting concrete with sugarcane bagasse ash–slag blended cement

Abstract

This study focuses on combined usage of agro and industrial wastes in developing environment-friendly concrete. Fresh and hardened characteristics of self-compacting concrete (SCC) made of blended cement with sugarcane bagasse ash (SBA, an agro-waste generated during sugar manufacture), granulated blast furnace slag (BFS) and Ordinary Portland cement were examined through an experimental program. Three SCC mix groups (BA10, BA20, and BA30) corresponded with three cement replacing levels of SBA (10%, 20%, and 30%) were developed. For each group, four mixtures associated with four replacement ratios of cement by slag were further employed (0%, 10%, 20%, and 30%). Totally, 12 mixtures incorporating SBA and BFS blended-cement and one reference mix were developed for experiment. Fresh properties of the proposed SCC were evaluated through measurement of the density, slump, slump-flow, V-funnel test, T500 slump, Box-test, and setting time. In addition, testing of compressive strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity, sulfate attack, water absorption as well as electrical resistivity were conducted for hardened concrete. The testing results indicated that replacing either SBA and/or BFS to OPC in mixtures led to lesser flowability. Compressive strength of sample made of 30% SBA and 30% BFS substituting to OPC were comparable to that of control after 91 days. Moreover, both of SBA and BFS strongly enhanced sulfate attack resistance; and almost SCC samples had a negligible corrosion rate after 28-day ages.