Studying the use of bagasse ash as partial replacement of cement in concrete production

Abstract

In this study, we present the use of bagasse ash to partially replace cement in concrete production to improve concrete quality and reduce environmental pollution. Sugar cane bagasse was cleaned and dried at 750^oC for 3 hours for bagasse ash afterwards. On analysing bagasse ash by X-ray fluorescence method (XRF), it showed that the high contents of SiO₂, K₂O and CaO were 24.4%, 36.18% and 14.98%, respectively. This study replaced cement with bagasse ash of 0.0, 2.0, 4.5, 6.5, 9.0, 11.5 and 13.5 %, respectively. The results indicate that the compressive strength of concrete after 28 days increased with different rates of bagasse ash replacement, of which the 4.5% replacement gave the highest compressive strength (74 N/mm²), i.e. increasing 3.5 times  compared with 100% cement concrete.