Performance evaluation of sugarcane bagasse ash blended cement in concrete

By-products from a number of industrial processes are used as alternative supplementary cementitious materials in concrete. Sugarcane bagasse ash is mainly composed of amorphous silica and can be used as a pozzolanic material in concrete. Production of sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) based blended cements with different replacement levels of SCBA, and the performance of concrete with these cements in terms of compressive strength, heat of hydration, drying shrinkage and durability are discussed in this paper. Durability performance was investigated by five different methods in this study, namely oxygen permeability test, rapid chloride penetration test, chloride conductivity test, water sorptivity test, DIN water permeability test and Torrent air permeability test. The results from this study show that use of sugarcane bagasse ash in concrete prominently enhances its performance. Low heat of hydration, additional strength gain due to pozzolanic reaction, significant reduction in permeability because of pore refinement and similar drying shrinkage behavior were observed for bagasse ash blended concrete compared to control concrete.