The Combined Effect of Sugarcane Bagasse’s Ash and Calcined Dolomite Powder as a Partial Replacement of Cement on the Compressive Strength of C25 Grade Concrete.

Abstract

Cement is made in vast quantities all over the world as a possible building material and an essential part of every construction project. Alternative materials—mostly agro-industrial wastes—have emerged as viable cement replacement materials due to the significant carbon dioxide emissions linked to cement manufacturing facilities and the fast rising cost of cement. Numerous naturally occurring materials, such as rice husk ash, corn cob ash, fly ash, slag, silica fume, sugarcane bagasse ash, and natural pozzolans, have found application in concrete and mortars as partial substitutes for cement due to their robust strength properties, cost-effectiveness, and environmentally friendly attributes. Sugarcane bagasse’s ash is one of the most frequently utilized pozzolanic material in concrete as a partial replacement of cement. But in most of the studies performed, the maximum percentage of bagasse’s ash utilization as a partial replacement of cement was limited to 15%. This paper provides a brief study on maximizing the usage of bagasse’s ash in concrete by blinding it with calcined dolomite powder. Both sugarcane bagasse’s ash and calcined dolomite powder were grinded in to very fine particles in order to improve their pozzolanic performance. The mineralogical and morphological properties of the waste sugarcane bagasse ash, calcined dolomite powder and the binary mixture were determined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier transform infrared radiation (FTIR), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) were also used to characterize the materials. After preparing ultrafine sugarcane bagasse’s ash and calcined dolomite powder, a binary mixture was used to replacement cement in C-25 grade concrete in 5% increments. The result of the compressive strength test shows that by reducing the particle size of the pazzolona below the cement grade and by blinding sugarcane bagasse’s ash with calcined dolomite powder, up to 30% of cement can be replaced by the binary mixtures with improved compressive strength.