Abstract
Sugarcane bagasse is an agricultural waste that can be transformed by incineration into a cement replacement material for various cementing purposes. This study investigated the role of finely ground bagasse ash (GBA) in producing engineered cementitious composites (ECCs) with the addition of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers. The main focus of this study was to develop a green ECC with higher strength capabilities (compressive, tensile and flexural) and greater tensile ductility. To develop this composite, GBA was added into ECC mixes at different proportions, i.e., 10, 20 and 30%. The proportions of PVA fibers and the water-to-binder ratio were kept constant. The results revealed that the ECC mix containing 10% GBA exhibited higher compressive strength compared to that of a control and the other ECC mixes. Furthermore, the tensile and flexural strengths of the ECCs exhibited patterns almost similar to that of compressive strength. Moreover, the deflection in the control mix was higher compared to that of the GBA-ECC mixes at an initial curing age. The ECC mix containing 10% GBA exhibited better ductile behavior among all the ECC mixes used in this study.
Highlights
After water, concrete is the most widely used material on our planet
Four-Point Bending Test The flexural strengths of the engineered cementitious composites (ECCs) mixes were measured by using the four-point loading method as specified by ASTM C348 - 14 (2014)
This research was carried out to study the potential use of ground bagasse ash (GBA) as a partial substitute for cement to produce an economical and sustainable ECC
Summary
Concrete is the most widely used material on our planet. The estimated yearly consumption of concrete is approaching 30 billion tons (Klee, 2009). For the last two decades, the trend of using high-strength concrete has been increasing due to its demand for building advanced infrastructures. It was decided to develop new cementitious materials with high ductility that would be more valuable in terms of safety, durability, and sustainability in structural applications. A new composite material called engineered cementitious composite (ECC) was developed, which possessed high tensile strength along with high compressive strength (Li, 1993, 2002; Li et al, 2002). In ECC, the concrete is sustained on an increased loading rate even after first cracking while undergoing large deformation. Because of these properties, ECCs are known as strain-hardening cementitious composites.
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