Impact of Silica Fume on Fly Ash Based Concrete Material

Fly ash, being a by-product, discarded and dumped as the power plant waste, is found to be highly toxic with its pozzolanic property. It can be utilised as a construction material to substitute cement. Along with fly ash, additional waste materials such as silica fume and rice husk have diversified applications to enhance the strength of the concrete material. In the present study, concretes are being prepared using variable combinations of fly ash, silica fume and rice husk dust, and their physical and mechanical properties are studied extensively. It is being observed that the addition of silica fume alone in the fly ash could produce concrete blocks with a compressive strength of 35 MPa whereas when silica fume is added along with rice husk powder, the compressive strength could be raised up to 40 MPa. Both types of concrete blocks are subjected to curing period of 14 days to 21 days. The result revealed that block containing silica fume shows corrosion resistance property, whereas blocks containing a combination of rice husk dust and silica fume shows both the property of hydrophobicity as well as corrosion resistivity. The study summarised the fact that by exploring the chemical and mechanical properties of some of the waste material, it is possible to prepare a hydrophobic, corrosion resistance block that could replace the use of cement in the concrete and contribute maximum to get rid of environmental pollutions.