Development of Polycarboxylate Ether-Based Fly-Ash Sand and Its Potential Application as a Construction Material
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35, Issue 10
Abstract
Due to increasing growth in the construction sector, demand for good quality natural river sand (NRS) is huge. This prompts extensive riverbed mining, which poses severe environmental consequences. This research aims to replace the natural river sand with polycarboxylate ether-based fly-ash sand (PFS) developed by mixing high volumes of fly ash with a commercially available high-solid-content polycarboxylate superplasticizer (HS-PCE). The physical, mechanical, and chemical properties were evaluated against the requirements of Indian standards and found in compliance. The developed PFS belonged to Zone I. It exhibited a good frictional angle (43°) and a specific gravity of 2.23. However, the water absorption and pH were higher for PFS in contrast to NRS. Durability tests like soundness and alkali-aggregate reactivity for PFS exhibited results within the prescribed limits per the Indian standards provision. Finally, the performance of PFS in the mortar was evaluated by casting cube specimens. The cubes with PFS achieved 26.12 MPa at 28 days, which was 96.85% in contrast to the strength of control concrete with NRS. The findings of this study indicate that PFS can act as a sustainable alternative to conventional NRS for construction works because it not only provides a similar mortar performance but also focuses on utilizing fly ash on a bulk scale.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This laboratory work was carried out in the concrete technology lab of the Civil Engineering Department at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur. The authors wish to express their gratitude to all the lab staff for their help offered during this work.
Author contributions: Abhishek Khupsare contributed to the methodology, investigation, formal analysis, resources, data curation, writing the original draft and editing, and visualization. Ajay K. Agarwal contributed to the methodology, resources, and writing (review and editing). Swapnil P. Wanjari contributed to the methodology, resources, and writing (review and editing).
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35 • Issue 10 • October 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 13, 2022
Accepted: Mar 15, 2023
Published online: Jul 25, 2023
Published in print: Oct 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Dec 25, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Ashes
- Building materials
- Construction materials
- Engineering materials (by type)
- Fly ash
- Foundation construction
- Foundations
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Hydrologic engineering
- Hydrology
- Materials engineering
- Mortars
- River engineering
- Rivers and streams
- Sand (hydraulic)
- Sand (material)
- Sandy soils
- Soil mechanics
- Soil mixing
- Soils (by type)
- Water and water resources
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