A brief on high-volume Class F fly ash as cement replacement – A guide for Civil Engineer

Disposal of fly ash (FA) resulting from the combustion of coal-fired electric power stations is one of the major environmental challenges. This challenge continues to increase with increasing the amount of FA and decreasing the capacity of landfill space. Therefore, studies have been carried out to re-use high-volumes of fly ash (HVFA) as cement replacement in building materials. This paper presents an overview of the previous studies carried out on the use of high volume Class F FA as a partial replacement of cement in traditional paste/mortar/concrete mixtures based on Portland cement (PC). Fresh properties, mechanical properties, abrasion resistance, thermal properties, drying shrinkage, porosity, water absorption, sorptivity, chemical resistance, carbonation resistance and electrical resistivity of paste/mortar/concrete mixtures containing HVFA (⩾45%) as cement replacement have been reviewed. Furthermore, additives used to improve some properties of HVFA system have been reviewed.