Use of Bagasse Ash in Concrete and Its Impact on the Strength and Chloride Resistivity

This paper reports the recycling of bagasse ash (waste product of sugar industries) as a cement replacement in concrete, which provides a satisfactory solution to environmental concerns associated with waste management. The impact of bagasse ash content as a partial replacement of cement has been investigated on physical and mechanical properties of hardened concrete, including compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, chloride diffusion, and resistance to chloride ion penetration. The results indicate that bagasse ash is an effective mineral admixture and pozzolan with the optimal replacement ratio of 20% cement, which reduced the chloride diffusion by more than 50% without any adverse effects on other properties of the hardened concrete. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)MT.1943-5533.0000227. (C) 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.