International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)
Effect of Fly ASH on Properties of Concrete
P. R. Wankhede1, V. A. Fulari 2
1,2
Assistant Professor, IBSS College of Engineering, Amravati
Abstract—This paper presents an Effect of Fly Ash on
Properties of Concrete. In the present study. Use of fly ash in
concrete imparts several environmental benefits and thus it is
ecofriendly. It saves the cement requirement for the same
strength thus saving of raw materials such as limestone, coal
etc required for manufacture of cement. Fly ash is pozzolanic
material & it improving the properties of concrete like
compressive strength & Durability. The results obtained are
discussed and compared with the available literature.
Keywords— Fly Ash, Ecofriendly, pozzolanic, Durability
I. INTRODUCTION
Present days construction industries needs faster
development and also require high strength of concrete to
facilitate the fast construction and economically
construction. For that purpose we used high early strength
of cement, to gain early strength of concrete. This demand
of high early strength gain of concrete put forth the use of
low w/c ratio. But when Use of fly ash in concrete imparts
several environmental benefits and thus it is ecofriendly. It
saves the cement requirement for the same strength thus
saving of raw materials such as limestone, coal etc required
for manufacture of cement. Fly ash is pozzolanic material
& it improving the properties of concrete like compressive
strength & Durability.
Several researchers in the past investigated the effect of
mineral and chemical admixtures on the properties of the
concrete adopting different theories. Some of the major
research works are listed below.
Malhotra, 1990, studied in detail the properties of
concrete with a wide range of Canadian fly ashes at 58% of
the total cementitious materials. These concretes were
tested for compressive strength, creep strain and resistance
to chloride ion penetration at various ages up to one year.
The results of study by Joshi et al (1994), indicated that
with fly ash replacement level up to 50% by cement
weight, concrete with 28 days strength ranging from 40 to
60 mpa and with adequate durability can be produced with
cost saving of 16% by 50% replacement level.
Bouzouboa,2004 at Canmet Canada have done studies
on the mechanical properties of concrete made with
blended high volume fly ash cements. Physical properties
of high volume fly ash cements and mortars had also been
studied.
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The use of the high volume fly ash cements improves the
resistance of the concrete to the chloride ion penetration.
The present study investigates the potential of fly ash as
cement replacement in concrete. The objectives are to
reduce the amount of ordinary Portland cement needed in
building construction so as to achieve economic
construction and sustainable development through the
preservation of the environment.
Li Yijin 2009 studied that the addition of ultra-fine fly
ash (UFA) to cement paste, mortar and concrete can
improve their fluidity, but some coarse fly ash can’t reduce
water. This paper investigates the effect of fineness and
replacement levels of fly ash on the fluidity of cement
paste, mortar, and concrete. The fly ash is collected by
electro-static precipitators and airflow classing technology.
Three different finenesses were chosen, and their
replacement levels were 20%, 30%, and 40%, respectively.
The experiment results show that particle size distribution,
Zeta potential, density and particle morphologies of fly ash
are the major factors affecting their fluidity.
Manas Kumar Sahoo 2010-11 His experiments helped in
determining the potential of the fly ash for use, in
manufacture of bricks, in highway embankments, as an
aggregate material in Portland cement, filling of low lying
and mine void areas etc. Composite material made of fly
ash is subject to a variety of different loading conditions,
and so different types of stresses develop. Based on the
different strength of composites it can be used in various
geotechnical applications like construction of roads,
Embankment, dams and reservoirs and mine filling.
Sarath Chandra Kumar October, 2011 observed that the
utilization of fly ash in concrete as partial replacement of
cement is gaining immense importance today, mainly on
account of the improvement of the long term durability of
concrete combined with ecological benefits. Technological
improvements in thermal power plants operation and fly
ash collection systems have resulted in improving the
consistency of fly ash. To study the effect partial
replacement of cement by fly ash, studies have been
conducted on concrete mixes with 300 to 500 kg/cum
cementitious material at 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%
replacement level. In their work the effect of fly ash on
workability, setting time, density, air content, compressive
strength, modulus of elasticity, shrinkage and permeability
by Rapid Chloride Permeability Test (RCPT) are studied.
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)
Xianyu Jin January, 2012 reported the results of
experimental study on the effects of mineral admixtures
such as silica fumes, slag, fly ash and metakaoline, on the
mechanical behavior of young concrete under either
uniaxial compression or tension. In their work uniaxial
compression and uniaxial tension tests have been
conducted on the concrete specimens at ages of ½, 1, 2, 3,
7, and 28 days. They utilizes the circumferential control
and adaptive deformation control and made the complete
stress-strain curves for young concrete under either uniaxial
compression or uniaxial tension. Their experimental results
shows that the different mineral admixtures do have
different influences on properties of young concrete also
metakaoline shows the best results on the mechanical
properties of young concrete.
Izhar Ahmed (Nov-Dec. 2012) Has presented the results
of an investigation dealing with Concrete cubes of 100 mm
size, to replace 0%, 5%, 10% and 15% cement with fly ash.
To cover a wide range of concrete mixes water
cementitious material ratio (W/C) of 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 were
used for water content of 186 kg/m3, 191.58 kg/m3 and
197.16 kg/m3 each. The effect of various parameters such
as replacement of cement by fly ash, water to cementitious
material ratio and water content is studied on fresh and
hardened properties of concrete. The study mainly
consisted of establishing relation between these parameters
in the form of Graphs to specify proportioning of required
fly ash based concrete. Both workability and strength
aspects are considered.
Amit Mittal observed the effect of fly ash on workability,
setting time, density, and air content, and compressive
strength, modulus of elasticity, shrinkage and permeability
by Rapid Chloride Test (RCPT). In their study 20%, 30%,
40% and 50% replacement of fly ash by mass of cement
were made for concrete mixes with 300 to 500 kg/cum
cementitious material. Also compressive strength, W/C
curves have been plotted for concrete mixes of grade M 15
to M 45 with different percentages of fly ash can be
directly designed.
A. K. Mathur An effort to present information regarding
fly ash as a resource material for strong and durable
concrete is attempted through this book. We do hope that
this book will be useful to prospective users of fly ash,
builder, developers and construction agencies. With the
increased awareness in this area fly ash will be used as an
essential ingredient of the concrete. This will help to
increase fly ash utilization in such value added and
environment friendly activities.
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Sherzad Hakkari studied the effect of various mineral
admixture such as fly ash, silica fume, pozzolan, rice-husk
ash (RHA), ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS)
and cutting stone & tile waste (CSTW). He observed that
pozzolans lower the heat of hydration, increase later
strength and increase durability.
II. OBJECTIVE
Properties of concrete depend upon properties of
ingredients and their relative proportion. Addition of
mineral in concrete mixes, while designing of mixes has
become increasingly complex. This is due to the chemical
composition and pozzolonic properties of admixtures.
Above complexity will be experimentally studied in this
research. The study will investigate the effect over the
various properties of concrete with use of mineral
admixtures. Based on above mechanism & combination the
main objectives of this study are
1. To increase strength & durability of concrete by
reducing water content & cement content.
2. Reduce disposal problem by using industrial waste
as a concrete ingredient.
III. PROBLEM DEFINITION
We performed work for nominal mix M25 grade
concrete for 0.35 w/c ratio. With mineral admixture 10%,
20%, and 30% replacement by mass of cement. In this
work we studied the effects of different w/c ratio,
percentage of mineral admixture over the properties of
concrete like workability & strength further more we
studied the effect with age of concrete and slump loss.
Quality is essence of good work. Good quality of concrete
is a homogenous mixture of water, cement, aggregate and
admixture. Only the mixing of these materials is not the
matter but to obtain the concrete which governs all the
properties of concrete mixes in fresh as well as hardened
concrete. To produce good quality concrete the following
steps are involved in concrete preparation.
1. Batching of materials.
2. Mixing
3. Compaction.
4. Finishing.
5. Curing and Demoulding.
6. Cube testing.
To produce good quality of concrete the selection of
materials as well as selection of required grade of concrete
is necessary.
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)
We have used M25 grade of concrete with the ratio 1:1:2 To study slump loss and workability of concrete slump
i.e. 1 part of cement, 1 part of fine aggregate and 2 part of cone test has been performed. The result has been
coarse aggregate. interpreted in terms of various combination forms as
follows.
A. Materials Specification
1. Variation in slump for different w/c ratio.
Following are the materials used 2. Variation in ultimate compressive strength for
 Cement: 53 grade of ordinary Portland cement different w/c ratio (0.35, 0.45, 0.55)
 Aggregate: 20mm retaining size 3. Variation in slump for different proportion of fly ash.
 Sand: Fine aggregate 4. Variation of compressive strength with replacement
 Water: Potable water of fly ash in different quantity and for different curing
 Mineral admixtures: Fly ash period.
This study performed over nominal mix of M25(1:1:2)
B. Characteristic of Material
grade of concrete only. In this project first we used
 Cement: 53 grade of ordinary Portland cement different w/c ratio as 0.35, 0.45 & 0.55, to know variation
 Aggregate: 20 mm maximum nominal size of in slump loss and higher strength of M25 concrete for
aggregate different w/c ratio. We casted three cubes for each w/c ratio
 Sand: Fine aggregate and cured these for four days. And from this we get that
 Water: Potable water M25 concrete delivers higher compressive strength with
 Admixture: We have used mineral admixture as 0.35 w/c ratio. It shows in table I and figure I
fly ash. TABLE I
 Mineral admixtures- Fly ash COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF CONCRETE WITH DIFFERENT W/C
 Ultra-fine fly ash RATIO
 Collected by electro-static precipitators in SOFIA
Compressive Avg. Comp.
power plant Sr.No.
W/C
Strength Strength
ratio
C. Experimental Investigation and Authentication N/Sq.mm N/Sq.mm
21.32
We have casted cubes of size 150X150X150 mm. 1.
Following material proportion and various dosage
2. 23.74
combination of admixture for 0.35 w/c ratio have been 0.35 22.45
studied. For nominal mix of M25 grade of concrete (1:1:2) 3. 22.29
 Cement: 1 kg
 Fine aggregate: 1 kg 4. 20.62
 Coarse aggregate: 2 kg
5. 20.90
 Water: W/c ratios is 0.35
0.45 20.89
 Fly ash: Replacement of cement 10%, 20%, and
6. 21.15
30% by weight of cement
7. 8.97
IV. RESULTS INTERPRETATION
In this research we show the effect of mineral admixture 8. 12.30
(fly ash) on the properties of concrete, which has been 0.55 11.10
investigated in laboratory and result obtained. So we 9. 12.04
present it graphically and discussed about it. The study has
been carried out by preparing concrete cubes for M25 grade
of nominal mix and tested after 7, 14 and 28 days of curing.
Cubes are casted for 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% replacement
of fly ash (mineral admixture) with the weight of cement.

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)
From fig II we can see the variation in slump loss with
different proportion of fly ash and in figures III, IV, V, VI
25 & VII it is clear that, variation in ultimate compressive
Compressive Strength

strength (N/mm2) with different age of concrete. In this

20
study we used different proportion of fly ash in 0%, 10%,
15 20% & 30%. We also measured slump loss for different
proportion of fly ash as shown in table III and figure III
10
N/Sq.mm

TABLE III
5 SLUMP WITH DIFFERENT PROPORTION OF FLY ASH
% Of Fly Ash 0% 10% 20% 30%
0 With Weight Of
0.35 0.45 0.55 Cement
Slump in MM 00 00 16 24

FIGURE I VARIATION IN COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH FOR DIFFERENT

W/C RATIO

We also study of variation in slump for different w/c

ratio. For 0.35 w/c ratio concrete does not show fluidity. In 30
table II and Figure II shows slump loss for 0.35, 0.45 and Concrete In mm 25
0.55 w/c ratio respectively. In this we observed that fluidity 20
Slump Of

of concrete increases with the increment in w/c ratio. For 15

0.55 w/c ratio fluidity of concrete is more. 10 Slump curve
5
TABLE II
SLUMP OF CONCRETE WITH DIFFERENT W/C RATIO 0
0% 10% 20% 30%
W/C 0.35 0.45 0.55
Ratio
00 35 180 FIGURE III SLUMP WITH DIFFERENT PROPORTION OF FLY ASH
Slump in MM
Compressive strength for different proportion of fly ash
after 7 days curing
TABLE IV
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH FOR DIFFERENT PROPORTION OF FLY ASH
200 AFTER 7 DAYS CURING
Slump in

Avg.
150 %
Date Of Comp. Comp.
Of Date Of Strength
SN Crushin Strength
Fly Casting
g N/Sq.mm
100
mm

Ash
Slump curve N/Sq.mm

50 1 27.03
2 26/02/1 13/03/1 23.13 23.18
0%
3 4 4 19.37
0
4 23.49
0.35 0.45 0.55 5 28.31 26.33
10 28/02/1 15/03/1
6 % 4 4 27.19

7 27.48
FIGURE II VARIATION IN SLUMP FOR DIFFERENT W/C RATIO 8 20 01/03/1 16/03/1 23.87 25.93
9 % 4 4 26.44
10 23.65
11 30 04/03/1 19/03/1 20.84 22.08
12 % 4 4 21.74
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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)
Compressive strength for different proportion of fly ash
after 28 days curing
27 TABLE VI
26
Comp. Strength

25 COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH FOR DIFFERENT PROPORTION OF FLY ASH

24 AFTER 28 DAYS CURING
(N/Sq.mm)

23
22 Avg.
21 %
Date Of Comp. Comp.
20 SN
Of Date Of
Crushin Strength Strength
19 Fly Casting
g N/Sq.mm
Ash
0% 10% 20% 30% N/Sq.mm

1 38.71
2 26/02/1 13/03/1 38.38 39.07
0%
3 4 4 40.11
FIGURE IV Compressive Strength For Different Proportion Of Fly 4 41.29
Ash After 7 Days Curing 5 10 28/02/1 15/03/1 44.36 43.11
% 4 4 43.68
Compressive strength for different proportion of fly ash 6
after 14 days curing 7 38.68
8 20 01/03/1 16/03/1 37.98 40.59
TABLE V
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH FOR DIFFERENT PROPORTION OF FLY ASH 9 % 4 4 45.11
AFTER 14 DAYS CURING 10 33.08
11 30 04/03/1 19/03/1 28.33 30.92
Avg. % 4 4 31.34
% Comp.
12
Date Of Comp.
Of Date Of Strength
SN Crushin Strength
Fly Casting
g N/Sq.mm
Ash
N/Sq.mm

1 35.66
2 26/02/1 13/03/1 31.13
0% 34.03
3 4 4 35.02
4 38.51
5 10 28/02/1 15/03/1 39.01
37.23
6 % 4 4 34.16
7 38.08
8 20 01/03/1 16/03/1 31.60 35.68
9 % 4 4 37.35
10 26.50
11 30 04/03/1 19/03/1 27.06 27.47 FIGURE VI COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH FOR DIFFERENT PROPORTION
12 % 4 4 28.87 OF FLY ASH AFTER 28 DAYS CURING

In following figure we can compare variation of ultimate

compressive strength of concrete for different proportion of
fly ash and for different age of concrete.
From the results obtained it can be clearly seen that for
10% to 20% replacement of fly ash with weight of cement
for w/c ratio 0.35, ultimate compressive strength is
increases and then if we further increases percentage of fly
ash, ultimate compressive strength decreases.

FIGURE V Compressive Strength For Different Proportion Of Fly

Ash After 14 Days Curing

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2014)
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Comp. Strength

PRC, pp.339-345.
40
(N/Sq.mm)

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OF PRACTICE‖ (Fourth Revision).
ash on the properties of concrete‖ for nominal mix of M25
[10] Semsi Yazici & Hasan Sahan Arel Department of Civil Engineering,
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Engineering Faculty, 35100 ˙Izmir, Turkey ―Effects of fly ash
1. Slump loss of concrete increases with increase in w/c fineness on the mechanical properties of concrete‖.
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very less. Ash Blended Cements Using A Coarse Fly Ash
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decreasing with increase in w/c ratio of concrete. Govt, Engg. college, Aurangabad. ―Effects of Fly Ash on Properties
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2 (Nov-Dec. 2012), PP 01-05
5. Concrete with 10% and 20% replacement of cement
with fly ash shows good compressive strength for 28
days than normal concrete for 0.35 w/c ratio.
6. But in the case of 30% replacement of cement with
fly ash ultimate compressive strength of concrete
decreases.

289