Flexural behaviour and corrosion potential of activated fly ash concrete

Abstract

Flexural behaviour and corrosion potential of activated fly ash concrete The conventional binding agent in concrete is Ordinary Portland newlineCement (OPC). However, cement production is highly energy intensive and newlineinvolved in CO2 emission to the atmosphere. The search for a cementitious newlinematerial which resists against nature has started long back. On the other hand newlinedisposal of solid wastes from power plants that use coal for production poses newlinegreat environmental problem for India and requires a mission-mode approach. newlineThe development and use of mineral admixture for cement newlinereplacement is growing in construction industry mainly due to the newlineconsideration of cost saving, energy saving, environmental protection and newlineconservation of resources. But the utilization of fly ash in construction is newlinelimited only to road works and for the manufacture of fly ash bricks and newlinePortland Pozzolanic cements in India. The cement production consumes vast newlineamounts of limestone and clay, besides being energy-intensive. Fly ash in newlinecement concrete is one of the areas where huge potential exists for large-scale newlinevalue added fly ash utilization on sustainable basis as in India, concrete newlineindustry is the largest consumer of Portland and modified Portland cements at newlinean annual rate of about 320 million tons. The utilization of fly ash as construction material largely depends newlineon its mineral structure and pozzolanic property. These two properties of fly newlineash can be enhanced by different methods of activation. Mechanical newlineactivation by grinding and thermal activation by heating needs advanced and costly equipments. At the same time the chemical properties like pH and newlinecorrosion inhibition are not improved much. Whereas chemical activation by newlineadding chemicals like gypsum, sodium hydroxide, sodium silicate, calcium newlineoxide is cheap and economical.