Abstract:
Self Compacting Concrete (SCC) is a development of conventional concrete, in which the use of vibrator for compaction is no more required. This property of self compacting concrete has made its use more attractive all over the world. But its initial higher supply cost over conventional concrete, has hindered its application to general construction. Therefore, for producing low cost SCC, it is prudent to look at the alternates to help reducing the SSC cost. In this study use of bagasse ash in SCC as viscosity modifying agent is evaluated. Variations of bagasse ash and superplasticizer contents and their affect on fresh and hardened properties of SCC are also studied. Hence, this research work is aimed at evaluating the usage of bagasse ash in SCC, and to study the relative costs of the materials used in SCC.
In this research study, the main variables are the proportion of bagasse ash, dosage of superplasticizer for flowability and water / binder ratio. The parameters kept constant are the amount of cement content equal to 500 kg/m3 and the water content equal to 255 kg/m3.
Test results substantiate the feasibility to develop low cost self-compacting concrete using bagasse ash. In the fresh state of concrete, the different mixes of concrete have slump flow in the range of 333 mm to 815 mm, L-box ratio ranging from 0 to 1 and flow time ranging from 1.8 seconds to no flow (stucked). Out of twenty five different mixes, five mixes were found to satisfy the requirements suggested by the European federation of national trade associations representing producers and contractors of specialist building products (EFNARC) guide for making self compacting concrete. The compressive strengths developed by the self compacting concrete mixes with bagasse ash at 28 days were comparable to the control concrete.
Cost analysis showed that the cost of ingredients of specific self compacting concrete mix is 37.72 percent less than that of control concrete, both having compressive strength above 34 MPa
