Perlite and Rice Husk Ash Re-Use As Fine Aggregates in Lightweight Aggregate Structural Concrete—Durability Assessment

Abstract

In this paper, perlite mining and rice production by-products, namely run-of-mine perlite and rice husk ash, are used as fine aggregates in combination with pumice and calcareous aggregates to produce lightweight concrete. Their use is evaluated mainly in terms of the durability of the concrete, by comparing four optimized lightweight concrete mixtures of similar density and strength with a reference one of normal weight. The sorptivity due to capillary sorption, open porosity, chloride migration, penetration resistance, and freeze and thaw response were studied to evaluate the durability of the lightweight concrete. According to the experimental results, the examined mixtures developed an adequate strength in order to be classified into strength classes greater than LC25/28 and, therefore, be used in structural applications. The durability of the mixtures was also sufficient, especially as far as the chlorides’ penetration resistance is concerned, which was found to be up to 39% lower compared to the reference mixture. The sorptivity and open porosity of the LWC mixtures increased due to the porous nature of the lightweight aggregates, and the mixtures were also found to be susceptible to freeze and thaw cycles. Exceptionally, the lightweight concrete mixtures comprising pumice and perlite exhibited a lower sorptivity and resistance to chloride penetration than the standard concrete and a promising tolerance to freezing and thawing. Thus, the optimized combination of pumice and perlite is a sustainable recommendation for structural lightweight concrete production and use, promoting the wider exploitation of natural aggregates with an acceptable compromise on strength and durability.

Influence of Sunflower Seed Husks Ash on the Structure Formation and Properties of Cement Concrete

“…The issue of using ash from these wastes in cement concrete technology and its effectiveness has been quite well studied, which is confirmed by various studies [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. For example, in Salas Montoya et al (2023) [9] study, "the application of rice husk ash as a substitution of a part of the Portland cement" provided a fairly significant rise in strength properties, namely over 20% compared to the reference prototype.…”

“…The results of this study regarding the use of sunflower seed husk ash are in good agreement with previous studies on the use of agricultural waste in concrete production. For example, as a comparative technology, we can consider the production of concrete based on agricultural waste in the form of rice husk ash and rice straw ash [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Another interesting direction is to compare concrete based on the ash of sunflower seed husks with concrete based on the ash of corn cobs [64].…”

“…RHA was also used as a fine aggregate. In Stratoura et al (2023) [14] study, including RHA in concrete technology made it possible to get lightweight concrete with increased resistance to the effects of chlorides. In Rani & Jaya Krishna (2022) [15] study, the use of rice straw ash in an amount of 10% also improved "the compressive strength by 23.21% and tensile strength by 28.25% compared to the control composition".…”

The Effects of Curing Temperature on CH-Based Fly Ash Composites

“…The higher compressive strength of concrete containing fly ash is associated with improved bonding between aggregates and slurry and with a denser microstructure owing to an altered pore size distribution [ 4 ]. Pumice and perlite used as fine aggregates have been experimentally shown to have good freeze–thaw resistance in their concrete mixtures which can better improve the durability of concrete [ 5 ]. Dong Lu et al also significantly reduced the cost of concrete by using conductive aggregates to enhance the durability of concrete [ 6 ].…”

Assessment of chlorine resistance in concrete in the tidal range and splash zone of a torrid marine region

“…Al-Hashem et al (Al-Hashem et al, 2022) investigated the effect of metakaolin (M.K. ), Habib et al (Habib et al, 2022) studied the effect of bentonite, Mathews et al (Mathews et al, 2023) used industrial by-products, Yuan et al (Yuan et al, 2021) applied electric arc furnace oxidizing slag (EAS), Yoon et al (Yoon and Lee, 2020) tested fly ash (FA), silica fume (SF), and natural zeolite as water repellency, Lee et al ; mixed locally produced ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS), Stratoura et al (Stratoura et al, 2023) mixed perlite and rice husk ash as fine aggregates, and Prithiviraj et al (Prithiviraj et al, 2022) used alccofine as an additive material to evaluate the durability of concrete.…”