Utilization of Plant Waste Materials as a Partial Replacement of Cement and Fine Aggregates in Concrete Production

Abstract

The research focused on possibility of producing high quality concrete by the way of adding plant waste materials like sugarcane bagasse ash (SBA), rice husk (RH) and cassava starch (CS) to concrete mixtures. Varying percentages of SBA (0, 5, 10, 15% - weight of the cement), rice husk (0, 5, 10, 15% - weight of the fine aggregates) and cassava starch (0, 1, 2, 3% - weight of the cement) were incorporated into the concrete mixtures design. Comprehensive laboratory investigations were done on the concrete’s workability (slump), density and mechanical strength, to establish the impact of these organic materials on the mechanical parameters of the concrete produced. The laboratory test results show that SBA and CS augmented the concrete slump rate whereas, the rice husk retarded the concrete’s workability. The result of the density indicated that the rice husk and SBA reduced the concrete’s density; however, the cassava starch caused substantial increment in the concrete’s density. On the concrete mechanical properties, it was noted from the results that the compressive strength was boosted by the incorporation of SBA and CS. The maximum compressive strength (23.7 N mm-2) was recorded through by substituting the cement with 10 and 2% of SBA and cassava starch respectively, in the presence of 10% RH as partial replacement of the sand. This study findings had revealed the potential of SBA, rice husk and cassava starch combinations in the right mixture design, to produce light-weight concrete material having sustainable high compressive strength.