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High Performance Concrete Incorporating Rice Husk Ash as a Supplementary

Cementing Material

Article  in  Aci Materials Journal · November 1996

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 ACI MATERIALS JOURNAL TECHNICAL PAPER
Title no. 93-M72

High-Performance Concrete Incorporating Rice Husk

Ash as a Supplementary Cementing Material

by Min-Hong Zhang and V. Mohan Malhotra

This paper presents results on the physical and chemical properties of rice the effect of incineration conditions on the pozzolanic prop-
husk ash (RHA), and deals with the properties of fresh and hardened con- erties of the ash, and a summary of the research findings
crete incorporating the same ash. The properties of fresh concrete investi- from several countries on the use of RHA as a supplementary
gated included workability, bleeding, setting time, and autogenous cementing material.
temperature rise, and those of the hardened concrete included compressive, Prior to 1970, RHA was usually produced by uncontrolled
splitting tensile, and flexural strengths, modulus of elasticity, drying shrink- combustion,10 and the ash so produced was generally crys-
age, resistance to chloride ion penetration, resistance to freezing and thaw- talline and had poor pozzolanic properties. In 1973, Mehta11
ing damage, and salt-scaling resistance. In addition to the effects of the published the first of several papers describing the effect of
percentage of RHA and the water-cementitious materials ratio on the prop- pyroprocessing parameters on the pozzolanic reactivity of
erties investigated, the properties of the RHA concrete were also compared RHA. Based on his research, Pitt12 designed a fluidized-bed
with those of the control portland cement concrete and silica fume concrete. furnace for controlled burning of rice husks. By burning the
The test results indicate that the RHA is highly pozzolanic and can be rice husks under a controlled temperature and atmosphere, a
used as a supplementary cementing material to produce high-performance
highly reactive RHA was obtained.
concrete. Although it requires a higher dosage of the superplasticizer and
the air-entraining admixture compared with those of the control concrete The objective of this research is to provide information on
and the silica fume concrete, the RHA concrete can be produced with satis- the utilization of RHA as a supplementary cementing mate-
factory slump, air content, and setting time. The RHA concrete had higher rial for producing high-performance concrete. This paper
compressive strengths at various ages up to 180 days compared with that of presents data on the physical and chemical properties of
the control concrete, but a lower value than that of the silica fume concrete.
RHA and discusses the properties of the concrete incorporat-
The flexural and the splitting tensile strengths, modulus of elasticity, and
drying shrinkage of the control concrete and the concrete incorporating ing the ash as a supplementary cementing material. In addition
RHA or silica fume were comparable. The RHA concrete had excellent re- to the effects of the percentage of RHA as cement replace-
sistance to chloride ion penetration, and the charge passed in coulombs was ment and water-cementitious materials ratio on the proper-
below 1000 both at 28 and 91 days. The RHA concrete also showed excel- ties investigated, the properties of the RHA concrete were
lent performance under freezing and thawing conditions, and its resistance
also compared with those of the control portland cement
to deicing salt scaling was similar to that of the control concrete and mar-
ginally better than that of the silica fume concrete. concrete and the concrete containing silica fume.

Keywords: high-performance concretes; portland cements; pozzolans; RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE

rice; silica fume. After aluminum and steel, portland cement is the most
energy-intensive material. Due to growing environmental
INTRODUCTION concerns and the need to use less energy-intensive products,
Rice husk, an agricultural waste, constitutes about one- efforts are being made to find cement replacement materials.
fifth of the 300 million metric tons of rice produced annually The use of RHA offers one such possibility. This paper pre-
in the world.1 Due to growing environmental concerns and sents the characteristics of RHA and its effect on the proper-
the need to conserve energy and resources, efforts have been ties of concrete, and provides information on the
made to burn the husks at a controlled temperature and atmo-
sphere, and to utilize the ash so produced as a supplementary ACI Materials Journal, V. 93, No. 6, November-December 1996.
cementing material.2-9 A state-of-the-art report on rice husk Received Feb. 9, 1995, and reviewed under Institute publication policies. Copyright
 1996, American Concrete Institute. All rights reserved, including the making of
ash (RHA) was published by Mehta10 in 1992, and contains copies unless permission is obtained from the copyright proprietors. Pertinent discus-
sion will be published in the September-October 1997 ACI Materials Journal if
a review of physical and chemical characteristics of RHA, received by June 1, 1997.

ACI Materials Journal / November-December 1996 629

ACI member Min-Hong Zhang is a research scientist at CANMET, Natural
hardened concrete. Based on the previous test results, a con-
Resources Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She received her DrIng degree from crete mix with 10 percent RHA as cement replacement by
the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim. She is a member of ACI Com- weight and a water-cementitious materials ratio of 0.40 was
mittees 213, Lightweight Aggregates and Lightweight Concrete, and 234, Silica Fume
in Concrete.
selected for further investigation in PhaseII. A control port-
land cement concrete mix and a mix incorporating silica
V. Mohan Malhotra, FACI, is Program Principal for the Advanced Concrete Tech- fume were also included for comparison. The properties of
nology Program, Resource Utilization Laboratory, Mineral Sciences Laboratories,
CANMET, Ottawa. He is a former member of the ACI Board of Direction and serves
the fresh concrete investigated included workability, bleed-
on ACI’s International Activities Committee and TAC High-Performance Concrete ing, setting time, and autogenous temperature rise; those of
Committee as well as ACI Committees 123, Research; 214, Evaluation of Results of the hardened concrete included compressive, splitting tensile
Tests Used to Determine the Strength of Concrete; 228, Nondestructive Testing of
Concrete; 232, Fly Ash and Natural Pozzolans in Concrete; 233, Ground Slag in
and flexural strengths, modulus of elasticity, drying shrink-
Concrete; 234, Silica Fume in Concrete; and 548, Polymers in Concrete. age, resistance to chloride ion penetration, freezing and
thawing, and deicing salt-scaling resistance.

development of high-performance concrete using RHA as an CONCRETE MIXES

alternative supplementary cementing material. The concrete mixes were made at CANMET in 1994 using
the following materials and mix proportions.
SCOPE
A total of 10 air-entrained concrete mixes was made. In Cement
ASTM TypeI normal portland cement was used. Its phys-
PhaseI, seven mixes were made to evaluate the effects of
ical properties and chemical composition are given in
the percentage of RHA as cement replacement and water-
Table1.
cementitious materials ratio on the properties of fresh and
Rice-husk ash (RHA)
The RHA used was a processed waste material incinerated
Table 1—Physical properties and chemical at a temperature not exceeding 800 C for a few min. The
analysis of cement, RHA, and silica fume used chemical composition and physical properties of the RHA
ASTM are also given in Table1. It contains a carbon content of 5.91
Type I
cement RHA Silica fume percent, and therefore is black in color. Chemical analysis
Physical tests indicates that the material is principally composed of SiO2
Specific gravity 3.09 2.06 2.16 (87.2 percent), and is also high in loss on ignition (8.55 per-
Fineness: cent). The ash also contains a relatively high K2 O content of
passing 45 µm, percent 93.0 99.0 98.9 3.68 percent that originates mainly from the fertilizers.10
specific surface, Blaine, m2/kg 373 — — RHA has a specific gravity of 2.06. Particle size distribution
nitrogen adsorption, m2 /g — 38.9 26.1 of the material is shown in Fig.1, together with that of the
median grain size, µm 13 7 — portland cement used in this study. Particle size distribution
Setting time, min: was determined by a particle size analyzer using scattered
initial 135 — — light from laser beams projected through a stream of particles
final suspended in isopropanol. The amount and direction of the
Compressive strength of 51-mm cube, MPa: light scattered by the particles were then measured by an op-
7-day 27.8 — — tical detector and analyzed by a computer. The median par-
28-day 39.1 — — ticle size of the RHA is approximately 7 µm, while that of
Chemical analyses, percent the cement is approximately 13 µm. The RHA, however, has
Silicon dioxide (SiO2) 20.1 87.2 93.71 an extremely high specific surface of 38.9 m2 /g by nitrogen
Aluminum oxide (Al2O 3) 4.51 0.15 0.21
Ferric oxide (Fe2 O3) 2.50 0.16 0.31
Calcium oxide (CaO) 61.3 0.55 0.35
Magnesium oxide (MgO) 3.13 0.35 0.47
Sodium oxide (Na2O) 0.24 1.12 0.19
Potassium oxide (K 2O) 0.39 3.68 1.19
Phosphorus oxide (P2O 5) < 0.9 0.50 0.14
Titanium oxide (TiO2) 0.24 0.01 0.01
Sulfur trioxide (SO3) 4.04 0.24 0.29
Carbon (C) — 5.91 —
Loss on ignition 2.41 8.55 2.72
Bogue potential compounds
Tricalcium silicate (C3S) 51.3 — —
Dicalcium silicate (C2S) 19.0 — —
Tricalcium aluminate (C3A) 7.7 — —
Tetracalcium aluminoferrite (C4AF) 7.6 — — Fig. 1—Particle size distribution of RHA and cement used

630 ACI Materials Journal / November-December 1996

absorption, which is almost 1.5 times that for silica fume.
The scanning electron micrograph (Fig.2) shows that the
material is very porous, thus explaining its high specific sur-
face, 7,10 and like those of cement, the particles of RHA are
angular. According to Mehta, 13 the carbon is intimately dis-
tributed in the amorphous silicate structure, and the high spe-
cific surface of the RHA is due to its honeycomb
microstructure, not its high carbon content. The x-ray dif-
fraction analysis (Fig.3) indicates that the ash contains
mainly amorphous materials with a small quantity of crystal-
line phases as cristobalite (high-temperature phase of SiO2 )
and sylvite (KCl).

Silica fume
The silica fume (SF) used was a dry uncompacted powder.
The chemical composition and physical properties of the sil-
ica fume are given in Table1. (a)

Aggregate
The coarse aggregate was crushed limestone with a maxi-
mum nominal size of 19mm, and the fine aggregate was local
natural sand from the Ottawa area. Both the coarse and fine ag-
gregates were separated into different size fractions and recom-
bined to a specified gradation shown in Table2. The coarse and
fine aggregates had specific gravities of 2.69 and 2.70, and wa-
ter absorption of 0.82 and 1.10 percent, respectively.

Superplasticizer
A superplasticizer of sulfonated naphthalene formalde-
hyde condensate was used for most of the concrete mixes.
The superplasticizer is a dark brown solution containing 42
percent solids.

Air-entraining admixture
A multicomponent synthetic resin type of air-entraining
admixture was used in all concrete mixes. (b)
Fig. 2—Scanning electron micrographs of RHA particles
Mix proportions
The proportions of the concrete mixes are summarized in
Table3.

PREPARATION AND CASTING OF TEST

SPECIMENS
The concrete was mixed in a laboratory countercurrent
mixer for a total of 5 min. The properties of fresh concrete
including slump, air content, density, bleeding, setting time,
and temperature rise were determined, and are given in

Table 2—Grading of aggregates

Coarse aggregate Fine aggregate
Cumulative Cumulative
Sieve size, percentage Sieve size, percentage
mm retained mm retained
19.0 0.0 4.75 0.0
12.7 40.0 2.36 10.0
9.5 65.0 1.18 32.5
4.75 100.0 0.60 57.5
0.30 80.0
0.15 94.0
pan 100.0 Fig. 3—X-ray spectrum of RHA

ACI Materials Journal / November-December 1996 631

Table4. The measurement of the temperature rise was car- determining the resistance to chloride ion penetration. Ten
ried out using a 152 x 305-mm cylinder with a temperature- 102 x 76 x 390-mm prisms were also cast for determining
measuring unit embedded in the middle of the cylinder. freezing and thawing resistance and drying shrinkage, and
Mixes C0, R10, and SF10 were used for determining the two 280 x 305 x 76-mm slabs were cast for the salt-scaling
properties of the fresh concrete and mechanical properties of test.
the hardened concrete, whereas Mixes C0-D, R10-D, and Most specimens were cast in two layers and compacted on
SF10-D were used for determining the durability and drying a vibrating table, except for the 152 x 305-mm cylinders,
shrinkage of the concrete. which were cast using an internal vibrator. After casting, all
For Mixes R1 through R7, nine 102 x 203-mm cylinders specimens were left covered in the casting room at 20 ± 3 C
were cast from each mix for compressive strength testing. for 24 hr. The specimens were then demolded and trans-
For Mixes C0, R10, and SF10, eighteen 102 x 203-mm cyl- ferred to a moist-curing room at 20 ± 3 C and 100 percent rel-
inders and three 102 x 76 x 406-mm prisms were cast for the ative humidity until the time of testing.
determination of compressive and flexural strengths, respec-
tively. Four 152 x 305-mm cylinders were also cast for deter- TESTING OF SPECIMENS
mining splitting tensile strength and modulus of elasticity. For Mixes R1 through R7, compressive strength was deter-
For Mixes C0-D, R10-D, and SF10-D, three 102 x 203- mined on cylinders at 1, 7, and 28 days; for Mixes C0, R10,
mm cylinders were cast for the determination of compressive and SF10, compressive strength was determined at 1, 3, 7, 28,
strength, and four cylinders of the same size were cast for 90, and 180 days. Splitting tensile and flexural strengths were

Table 3—Mix proportions of concrete

Quantities, kg/m 3
RHA Silica fume w/c or Napthalene- Air-entraining
content, content, w/(c + RHA) Fine Coarse based admixture,
Mix no. percent percent or w/(c + SF) Water* Cement RHA Silica fume aggregate aggregate superplasticizer mL/m 3
R1 0 — 0.40 159 392 0 — 686 1121 3.0 131
R2 5 — 0.40 155 369 19 — 677 1105 3.8 279
R5 8 — 0.40 156 360 31 — 682 1111 3.8 402
R3 10 — 0.40 156 350 39 — 676 1101 5.5 599
Phase I
R4 15 — 0.40 157 335 59 — 681 1108 5.0 959
R6 10 — 0.31 139 398 44 — 666 1087 11.2 491
R3 10 — 0.40 156 350 39 — 676 1101 5.5 599
R7 10 — 0.50 169 304 34 — 675 1102 0 794
C0 0 0 0.40 154 385 0 0 674 1102 2.5 158
R10 10 — 0.40 153 345 38 0 667 1086 3.9 590
SF10 — 10 0.40 155 348 0 39 673 1098 3.7 248
Phase II
C0-D 0 0 0.40 155 386 0 0 676 1105 2.5 129
R10-D 10 — 0.40 156 350 39 0 677 1102 4.0 549
SF10-D — 10 0.40 155 348 0 39 671 1096 3.7 248
*
Includes water in superplasticizer.

Table 4—Properties of fresh concrete

Setting time,
RHA Silica fume w/c or
Density, hr:min
content, content, w/(c + RHA) Temperature, Slump, Air content,
Mix no. percent percent or w /(c + SF) C mm kg/m 3 percent Bleeding Initial Final
R1 0 — 0.40 23.5 200 2360 4.3 — — —
R2 5 — 0.40 19.0 140 2400 5.2 — — —
R5 8 — 0.40 19.5 190 2400 4.3 — — —
R3 10 — 0.40 23.5 210 2345 5.1 — — —
R4 15 — 0.40 — 180 2345 4.0 — — —
R6 10 — 0.31 17.0 230 2345 6.3 — — —
R3 10 — 0.40 23.5 210 2345 5.1 — — —
R7 10 — 0.50 17.5 140 2300 5.7 — — —
C0 0 0 0.40 21 80 2345 6.1 negligible n/a 5:12
R10 10 — 0.40 22 130 2315 6.5 negligible 4:15 5:48
SF10 — 10 0.40 20.5 150 2330 5.7 negligible 3:36 4:48
C0-D 0 0 0.40 19 140 2345 5.8 — — —
R10-D 10 — 0.40 19 210 2345 5.1 — — —
SF10-D — 10 0.40 23 130 2330 5.8 — — —

632 ACI Materials Journal / November-December 1996

determined at 28 days using two cylinders and three prisms, The strength development of RHA concrete with w/(c +
respectively. The modulus of elasticity was determined at 28 RHA) of 0.31, 0.40, and 0.50 was similar up to 28 days.
days on two cylinders. The drying shrinkage of the two prisms The strength of the concrete with the RHA increased with
was measured at 7, 14, 28, 56, and 112 days after an initial decreasing w/(c + RHA) (Fig.6). At w/(c + RHA) of 0.31
curing of 1 day in the mold and 6 days in lime-saturated water, and RHA content of 10 percent, concrete had a compressive
and the measurements will be continued for 224 days. Another
strength of 60.7 MPa at the age of 28 days.
two prisms were stored in the lime-saturated water 24 hr after
casting, and their length changes were measured for reference
Phase II concrete mixes
purposes. All the previous tests were carried out following the
Because of the need for a high dosage of air-entraining ad-
relevant ASTM standards.
mixture for concrete with 15 percent RHA, and the require-
Resistance to chloride ion penetration was measured ac-
ment of a high dosage of superplasticizer for concrete with a
cording to ASTM C 1202 at the ages of 28 and 90 days using
the top portion of the cylinders. Resistance to freezing and w/(c + RHA) of 0.31, the concrete mix with 10 percent RHA
thawing cycling was determined following ASTM C 666 and a w/(c + RHA) of 0.40 was selected for comparison with
Procedure A, freezing and thawing in water. The changes in the control portland cement concrete and the concrete with
length, weight, pulse velocity, and resonant frequency of the 10 percent silica fume.
two prisms were determined after every 50 freezing and Properties of fresh concrete—At the replacement level of
thawing cycles. The flexural strength of the concrete prisms 10 percent, the RHA concrete required more superplasticizer
were also determined after the completion of the test, and and more air-entraining admixture compared with the control
compared with that of the reference concrete specimens and silica fume concrete to obtain the desired slump and air
cured in the moisture room. The air content and spacing fac-
tor of the hardened concrete were determined following
ASTM C 457.
The salt-scaling resistance test, based on ASTM C 672,
was started after an initial moist-curing of the two test slabs
for 28 days, followed by 14 days’ drying in laboratory air.
The test slabs were exposed to 50 cycles of freezing and
thawing in a 3 percent NaCl solution. The performance of the
concrete was evaluated visually and by determining weight
loss.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Phase I concrete mixes
Effect of percentage of RHA as cement replacement—The
properties of the fresh concrete are given in Table 4 (Mixes
R1 through R5). The concretes had slumps ranging from 140
to 210mm and unit weights from 2345 to 2401 kg/m3 . The
Fig. 4—Relationship between requirement of air-entraining
air content of the concrete was in the range of 4.0 to 5.2 per- admixture and RHA content
cent. Because of the high specific surface of the RHA, the re-
quired air-entraining admixture dosage for the concrete is
relatively high. Furthermore, the air-entraining admixture
dosage increased with an increase in the percentage of the
RHA used as cement replacement (Fig.4). At a replacement
level of 15 percent for portland cement, it required about
1000 mL of the air-entraining admixture per m3 of concrete
to obtain the proper amount of air.
Compressive strength development of the concrete with
different percentages of RHA as cement replacement is
shown in Fig.5. The compressive strength of the concrete
containing up to 15 percent of RHA was higher than that of
control portland cement concrete at 1, 7, and 28 days.
Effect of water-cementitious materials ratio—For con-
crete containing 10 percent RHA as a replacement for ce-
ment, and having different w/(c + RHA) (Mixes R3, R6, and
R7), the slump was in the range of 140 to 230mm. The air
content of the concrete was between 5.1 and 6.3 percent. For
the concrete with a low w/(c + RHA) of 0.31, it required a Fig. 5—Development of compressive strength of concrete
high dosage of superplasticizer (more than 10 kg/m3 of con- with different percentages of RHA as cement replacement
crete) to obtain the proper slump. [w/(c + RHA)-0.40]

ACI Materials Journal / November-December 1996 633

content, respectively (Table4). Both may be attributed to the mixes was close to 20 C. The maximum temperature for the
high specific surface and high carbon content of the RHA. concrete with RHA was 46.7 C, which was almost the same
Compared with the silica fume concrete, the initial and fi- as that of the control concrete (45.6 C) and the concrete with
nal setting times of the RHA concrete were about 40 and 60 silica fume (46.1 C). The maximum temperature of the RHA
min longer, respectively. The final setting time of the RHA concrete was reached after 16.3 hr, which was earlier than
concrete was approximately 30 min longer than that of the that for the control concrete (19.7 hr) and the concrete with
control concrete. The bleeding in all three concrete mixes silica fume (18.9 hr). This indicates a high reactivity for the
was negligible. RHA and its effect on the acceleration of cement hydration
Fig. 7 shows the autogenous temperature rise with time in due to its high specific surface. After about 65 hr, the RHA
the concrete mixes. The placing temperature of the concrete concrete had a lower temperature compared with that of the
control and silica fume concretes.
Properties of hardened concrete—The test results for
strength and modulus of elasticity of the concrete are given
in Table5. The RHA concrete had higher compressive
strengths at various ages up to 180 days compared with that
of the control concrete, but a lower value than that of the sil-
ica fume concrete (Fig.8). At 28 days, the RHA concrete had
a compressive strength of 38.6 MPa compared with 36.4
MPa for the control concrete and 44.4 MPa for the silica
fume concrete; at 180 days, the RHA concrete had a com-
pressive strength of 48.3 MPa compared with 44.2 MPa for
the control concrete and 50.2 MPa for the silica fume concrete.
The limited test data indicate that the flexural and splitting
tensile strengths and modulus of elasticity of the control and
concrete incorporating RHA or silica fume were comparable.
At 28 days, the flexural strengths of the concretes were 6.3,
6.8, and 7.0 MPa for the control, RHA, and silica fume con-
Fig. 6—Development of compressive strength of concrete cretes, respectively. The values of splitting tensile strength
with different w/(c + RHA) (RHA content = 10 percent) for the control and RHA concrete were 2.7 and 3.5 MPa,

Fig. 7—Autogenous temperature rise in 152 x 305-mm con- Fig. 8—Development of compressive strength of concrete with
crete cylinders RHA and silica fume [w/c, w/(c + RHA), or w/(c + SF) = 0.40]

Table 5—Mechanical properties of hardened concrete

Strength properties, MPa
E
Silica w/c or
Unit Splitting modulus,
RHA fume w/(c + RHA)
weight, Compressive tensile Flexural GPa
Mix content, content, or
no. percent percent w/(c + SF) kg/m 3 1 day 3 days 7 days 28 days 90 days 180 days 365 days 28 days 28 days 28 days
C0 0 0 0.40 2350 20.9 25.5 28.9 36.4 42.5 44.2 50.1 2.7 6.3 29.6
R10 10 — 0.40 2320 22.1 26.2 31.1 38.6 47.0 48.3 48.6 3.5 6.8 29.6
SF10 — 10 0.40 2320 23.2 28.6 34.7 44.4 48.0 50.2 52.5 2.8 7.0 31.1
Note: Compressive strength = average of three 102 x 203-mm cylinders; splitting tensile strength = average of two 152 x 305-mm cylinders; flexural strength = average of two
102 x 76 x 406-mm prisms; E modulus = average of two 152 x 305-mm cylinders.

634 ACI Materials Journal / November-December 1996

respectively. The modulus of elasticity ranged from 29.6 respectively; the corresponding values of the spacing factor
GPa for both the control concrete and the RHA concrete to L were 0.15, 0.25, and 0.17mm, respectively.
31.1 GPa for the silica fume concrete. It is generally agreed that air-entrained concrete should
Fig. 9 shows the drying shrinkage strain of the concretes have a spacing factor not exceeding 0.2mm for satisfactory
after 7 days of initial curing in lime-saturated water. The resistance to freezing and thawing. In recent years, several
RHA concrete had a drying shrinkage of 557 x 10-6 after 112 publications14-16 have reported that superplasticized con-
days, which was similar to the strains for the control and the crete and concrete incorporating supplementary cementing
silica fume concretes. materials show satisfactory resistance to freezing and thaw-
Durability aspects—The 28- and 91-day test results for the ing cycling even if the spacing factor exceeds 0.2mm and is
resistance to penetration of chloride ions into concrete, mea- between 0.2 and 0.25mm.14-16 The test results obtained in
sured in terms of the electric charge passed through the spec- this investigation support these published data.
imens in coulombs (ASTM C 1202), are given in Table6.
The results of the scaling resistance tests according to
At 28 days, the control concrete showed the highest value ASTM C 672 are given in Table8. The visual evaluation of
of 3175 coulombs; in comparison, the charge passed through
the test slabs subjected to the deicing salt scaling test for 50
the RHA concrete was 875 coulombs, which was higher than
cycles showed that the performance of the RHA concrete
that of the silica fume concrete (410 coulombs). With a con-
was similar to that of the control concrete but marginally bet-
tinuous moist-curing of up to 91 days, the charge passed
ter than the silica fume concrete (Table8). For both the con-
through all three concretes was reduced. The charge for the
trol and RHA concrete, no coarse aggregate was visible after
RHA concrete was reduced to 525 coulombs, which was
50 cycles of freezing and thawing; for the silica fume con-
well below that of the control concrete (1875 coulombs) and
crete, some coarse aggregate was visible. Nevertheless, all
somewhat higher than that of the silica fume concrete (360
three concretes had a total mass of scaling residue of equiv-
coulombs). According to ASTM C 1202, when the charge
passed through concrete is below 1000 coulombs, the con-
crete has very high resistance to chloride ion penetration.
Table7 summarizes the results of the freezing and thaw-
ing testing according to ASTM C 666 Procedure A, freezing
and thawing in water. The control, RHA, and silica fume
concretes showed excellent performance in the freezing and
thawing test. The RHA concrete had a durability factor of
98.3 and very small changes in length, weight, pulse veloci-
ty, and resonant frequency after 300 cycles of freezing and
thawing cycling. The residual flexural strength of the RHA
concrete prisms subjected to freezing and thawing cycles
was 83 percent of the reference specimens, which was com-
parable to that of the control concrete (85 percent) but some-
what lower than that of the silica fume concrete (96 percent).
The air-void parameters of hardened concrete, that is, spe-
cific surface and spacing factor, are also shown in Table7.
The values of the specific surface were 21.2, 14.1, and
22.2mm -1 for the control, RHA, and silica fume concretes, Fig. 9—Drying shrinkage of concrete

Table 6—Test results of resistance of concrete to chloride ion penetration

Resistance to chloride ion penetration, *
w/c Compressive
Unit weight, coulomb
or w/(c + RHA) strength,
Mix no. Type of concrete or w/(c + SF) kg/m 3 28-day, MPa 28 days 90 days
C0-D Control 0.40 2320 36.5 3175 1875
R10-D 10 percent RHA 0.40 2340 45.5 875 525
SF10-D 10 percent SF 0.40 2310 42.8 410 360
*Average of tests on two 50-mm disks on top portion of two 102 x 203-mm cylinders.

Table 7—Test results of resistance of concrete to freezing and thawing cycles

Air Change at end of 300
Compressive content, freezing/thawing cycles, percent Residual
strength, percent Air content, Specific Spacing Durability flexural
Type of 28-day (fresh percent surface, factor, Pulse Resonant factor, strength,
Mix no. concrete (MPa) concrete) (ASTM C 457) mm-1 mm Weight Length velocity frequency percent percent
C0-D Control 36.5 5.8 6.6 21.2 0.15 0.08 0.006 -0.55 -0.84 98 85
R10-D 10 percent RHA 45.5 5.1 3.6 14.4 0.25 0.02 -0.001 0.01 -0.86 98 83
SF10-D 10 percent SF 42.8 5.8 5.0 22.2 0.17 0.12 0.001 0.19 0.47 101 96

ACI Materials Journal / November-December 1996 635

 alent to or less than 0.8 kg/m2 * after 50 cycles in the presence analyzer and Master Builders, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio, for supplying the mul-
of the deicing salt. ticomponent synthetic resin-type air-entraining admixture used in this study.

The RHA had a relatively high K2 O content of 3.68 per-

cent. However, no data are presently available as to the effect CONVERSION FACTORS
of the RHA on alkali-aggregate reactions in concrete; re- 1 MPa = 145 psi
1 kg/m3 = 1.6855 lb/yd3
search is needed in this area. 1 C = 1.8 tc + 32 F
1 mm = 0.0394 in.
CONCLUSIONS
RHA is a highly reactive pozzolanic material and can be REFERENCES
used as a supplementary cementing material to produce 1. Cook, D. J.; Pama, R. P.; and Damer, S. A., “Behavior of Concrete and
Cement Paste Containing RHA,” Conference Proceedings on Hydraulic
high-performance concrete. Cement Paste, Cement and Concrete Association, London, 1976, pp.268-282.
The compressive strength of the concrete containing up to 2. Mehta, P. K., and Pitt, N., “Energy and Industrial Materials from Crop
15 percent of the RHA was higher than that of the control Residues,” Resource Recovery and Conservation, 2, 1976, pp.23-38.
portland cement concrete. The strength of the concrete in- 3. Mehta, P. K., “Properties of Blended Cements Made from RHA,” ACI
creased with decreasing w/(c + RHA). JOURNAL , Proceedings V. 74, No. 9, Sept.1977, pp.440-442.
Due to the high specific surface of the RHA, the concrete 4. Manmohan, D., and Mehta, P. K., “Influence of Pozzolanic, Slag, and
Chemical Admixtures on Pore Size Distribution and Permeability of Hard-
incorporating RHA required higher dosages of the super- ened Cement Pastes,” Cement, Concrete, and Aggregates, V. 3, No. 1,
plasticizer and the air-entraining admixture than the control Summer 1981, pp.3-67.
portland cement and silica fume concretes to achieve the 5. Yamamoto, Y., and Lakho, S. M., “Production and Utilization of
same slump and air content. Active RHA as a Substitute for Cement,” Proceedings of JSCE, No. 322,
The RHA concrete had slightly longer setting times than June 1982, pp.157-166.
those of the control and the silica fume concretes. The bleed- 6. James, J., and Rao, S., “Characterization of Silica in RHA,” Ceramic
Bulletin, V. 65, No.8, 1986, pp.1177-1180.
ing of the concrete incorporating RHA was negligible. The
7. Hwang, C.-L., and Wu, D.-S., “Properties of Cement Paste Containing
autogenous temperature rise of the RHA concrete was com- RHA,” Fly Ash, Silica Fume, Slag, and Natural Pozzolans in Concrete—
parable to that of the control and silica fume concretes. The Proceedings of the Third International Conference, SP-114, V. M. Mal-
maximum temperature for the RHA concrete reached 2 to 3 hotra, ed., American Concrete Institute, Detroit, 1989, pp.733-762.
hr earlier than for the control and silica fume concretes. 8. Boateng, A. A., and Skeete, D. A., “Incineration of Rice Hull for Use
as a Cementitious Material: The Guyana Experience,” Cement and Con-
The RHA concrete had higher compressive strengths at
crete Research , V. 20, 1990, pp.795-802.
ages up to 180 days compared with that of the control con-
9. Singh, N. B.; Sarvahi, R.; Singh, S. P.; and Shukla, A. K., “Hydration
crete, but lower values than those of the silica fume concrete. Studies of RHA-Blended White Portland Cement,” Advances in Cement
The flexural and splitting tensile strengths, modulus of elas- Research, V. 6, No. 21, Jan.1994, pp.13-18.
ticity, and drying shrinkage of the control concrete and the 10. Mehta, P. K., “Rice Husk Ash—A Unique Supplementary Cement-
concrete incorporating RHA or silica fume were comparable. ing Material,” Proceedings of the International Symposium on Advances in
Concrete Technology , Athens, Greece, May 1992, V. M.Malhotra, ed.,
The RHA concrete had excellent resistance to chloride ion pp.407-430.
penetration and the charge passed in coulombs was below 1000 11. Mehta, P. K., “Siliceous Ashes and Hydraulic Cements Prepared
both at 28 and 91 days, which was well below that of the control Therefrom,” Belgium Patent 802909, July 1973, U.S. Patent 4105459,
concrete but higher than that of the silica fume concrete. Aug. 1978.
The RHA concrete showed excellent performance under 12. Pitt, N., “Process for Preparation of Siliceous Ashes,” U.S. Patent
freezing and thawing cycling with a durability factor of 98. 3959007, May 1976.
13. Mehta, P. K., private communication, 1995.
The resistance of the RHA concrete to deicing salt scaling
14. Malhotra, V. M., “Mechanical Properties and Freezing and Thawing
was similar to that of the control concrete and marginally
Resistance of Non-Air-Entrained, Air-Entrained, and Air-Entrained Super-
better than that of the silica fume concrete. plasticized Concrete Using ASTM Test C 666, Procedure A and B,”
Cement, Concrete, and Aggregate, V. 4, No. 1, Summer 1982, pp.3-24.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 15. Malhotra, V. M.; Painter, K. E.; and Bilodeau, A., “Mechanical Prop-
The authors acknowledge the assistance of R. Chevrier and R. Canaj for erties and Freezing and Thawing Resistance of High-Strength Concrete
the detailed laboratory work on the concrete, as well as RHA Technology, Incorporating Silica Fume,” MSL Division Report 86-96 (OP&J) Draft,
Inc., El Cerrito, California, for supplying the Microtrac X100 particle size CANMET, Energy, Mines and Resources Canada, Ottawa, 1986.
16. Giaccio, G. M., and Malhotra, V. M., “Concrete Incorporating High
*In Ontario Provincial Standard Specification, the value of 0.8 kg/m2 is used as a Volumes of ASTM Class F Fly Ash,” Cement, Concrete, and Aggregate, V. 10,
criterion for evaluating the quality of concrete. No. 2, Winter 1988, pp.88-95.

Table 8—Test results of deicing salt scaling

w/c or Compressive Total scaling
w/(c + RHA) or strength, Visual rating,* residue,
Mix no. Type of concrete w/(c + SF) 28-day, MPa ASTM C 672 kg/m 2
C0-D Control 0.40 36.5 2 0.3
R10-D 10 percent RHA 0.40 45.5 2 0.6
SF10-D 10 percent SF 0.40 42.8 3 0.8
*Rating (ASTM C 672): 0 = no scaling; 1 = very slight scaling (3.2 mm max, no coarse aggregate visible); 2 = slight to mod-
erate scaling; 3 = moderate scaling (some coarse aggregate visible); 4 = moderate to severe scaling; 5 = severe scaling (coarse
aggregate visible over entire surface).

636 ACI Materials Journal / November-December 1996

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