Thermochemical Pretreatments for Agricultural Residue Ash Production for Concrete
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 25, Issue 11
Abstract
Agricultural residue ash is known to be a very reactive source of supplementary cementitious material (SCM) for use in concrete. The influence of thermochemical pretreatments on the reactivity of agricultural residue ash (ARA) was studied for its use as an SCM. It was shown that pretreatments are effective in the partial removal of alkali metals and other impurities out of both wheat straw and rice straw, leading to ARA with lower loss on ignition (LOI), higher internal surface area, and higher amorphous silica content than unpretreated ARA. It was shown that the alkali content correlated with the LOI and amorphous silica content of the ash. When used at a cement replacement rate of 20% by mass, pretreated ARA accelerated the hydration of cement paste samples, whereas unpretreated ARA retarded the cement hydration. Pretreatments were found to increase ARA reactivity, as measured by calcium hydroxide content reduction with time. ARA increased the compressive strength of mortar samples by 25% when used as 20% replacement of cement in the samples. The calcium hydroxide content of paste samples and mortar compressive strength was found to correlate to the amorphous silica content of the ash.
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Acknowledgments
Financial support for this project was provided by the National Science Foundation (CMMI-103093). The authors thank Dr. Donn Beighley for providing the rice straw. The help of Dr. Kenneth J. Klabunde for providing access to the BET Nitrogen equipment is appreciated. The help of Monarch Cement Company in chemical analysis of samples is greatly acknowledged. Valuable advice from Dr. Maria Juenger throughout this paper is greatly appreciated. Antoine Borden’s assistance with the pretreatment experiments is gratefully acknowledged.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 25 • Issue 11 • November 2013
Pages: 1703 - 1711
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 3, 2012
Accepted: Oct 23, 2012
Published online: Oct 26, 2012
Discussion open until: Mar 26, 2013
Published in print: Nov 1, 2013
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