Experimental Investigation on Effect of Partial Replacement of Cement with Bamboo Leaf Ash on Concrete Property

Abstract

Ethiopia’s construction industry is aggressively expanding than ever before. Cement is the most essential and expensive material in this regard. Cement takes 10%–15% by volume of concrete. Nowadays, the construction industry is challenged by the scarcity of cement and price escalation of the cement market. However, scholars try to replace cement with pozzolanic material. Besides this, they investigated that bamboo leaf ash possesses pozzolanic properties. Ethiopia has about 850,000 hectares of lowland bamboo, so it is good to utilize bamboo leaf ash as a replacement material for cement. In this study, the capability of lowland Ethiopian bamboo leaf ash as a partial substitute for cement in C-25 concrete production with 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% replacement of OPC by BLA with 0.49 percent water-to-cement ratio was investigated. This study examines the chemical properties of BLA, physical properties of cement paste, workability, compressive strength, water absorption, density, and sulfate attack of concrete. The chemical composition of bamboo leaf ash was examined, the summation of SiO2, AlO3, and FeO3 is 76.35%, and the ash was classified class N pozzolan. The normal consistency percentage of water increases as the BLA replacement amount increases, and both initial and final setting time ranges increase as the BLA replacement amount increases. The compressive strength of concrete for 5% and 10% BLA achieves the target mean strength (33.5 MPa) on the 28th day, and on the 56th day, 5% and 10% replacements increase the concrete strength by 1.84% and 0.12%, respectively. The water absorption and sulfate attack have significant improvement of the BLA-blended concrete on 5% and 10% BLA content. According to the findings, bamboo leaf ash potentially substitutes cement up to 10%. The outcome of the study will balance the cement price escalation and increase housing affordability without compromise in quality.

Effect of Agricultural Crop Wastes as Partial Replacement of Cement in Concrete Production

“…According to the researchers, more than 70% of the oxides of bamboo leaves' ash was silica (SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , and Fe 2 O 3 ) followed by a significant amount of CaO, SO 3 , and LOI. e other results of the chemical compositions of BLA by Abebaw et al [21] revealed that SiO 2 , CaO, and Al 2 O 3 were the main oxides, and the LoI was recorded as 9.65%. Asha et al [22] confirm that BLA had 59.20% silicon dioxide which confirms that it has the potential of acting as a pozzolanic material.…”

“…Asha et al [22] confirm that BLA had 59.20% silicon dioxide which confirms that it has the potential of acting as a pozzolanic material. Table 1 summarizes the chemical compositions of BLA based on Frías et al [23]; Rodier et al [24]; Villar-Cociña et al [25]; Moraes et al [1]; Villar-Cociña et al [26]; and Abebaw et al [21]. According to the table and the oxide compositions, all the BLA samples would comply with [27] and characterizes as pozzolans with class N. e higher LOI recorded [1] might be due to the soil and its fertility to grow the bamboo plant and species.…”

“…e standard and the commonly used method to examine the mineralogical and morphological behavior of pozzolans materials has been X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Frías et al [23], Villar-Cociña et al [26], and Abebaw et al [21] used XRD by using the random powder method to identify the mineralogical compositions of BLA. Figure 1 shows the mineralogical compositions of bamboo leaves calcined at 600 °C for 2 hrs.…”

“…e same temperature was used by Villar-Cociña et al [26] to calcine the bamboo leaves, and the ashes were obtained in a laboratory electric furnace at 400 °C for 60 min to remove organic matter, and finally, they were calcined using an electric furnace at 500 °C, 600 °C, and 700 °C, for a period of 2 °h, with a heating rate of 10 °C min −1 . Abebaw et al [21] calcined BLA for 2 h at 600 °C, the ash has dark grey color, 2.15 g/cc specific gravity, fineness modulus of 30.50%, and 1217 kg/m 3 density.…”

“…Silica fume, metakaolin, sugarcane bagasse, rice husk ash, paper sludge, and ceramic residues had similar pozzolanic behavior with BLA [81,98,99]. Abebaw et al [21] replaced cement with BLA at a percentage of 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% at a constant water-cement ratio of 0.49. ey found that due to the fineness of BLA and large specific surface area, the slump values go down as the replacement level BLA increases, up to 10% replacement level, the slump is still in the estimated range of 25 mm to 50 mm. e investigations made for banana leaves' ash (BNLA) based mortar showed that the amount of air-entrained content was slightly decreased by the addition of BLA when compared to the normal one [36].…”