COAL BOTTOM ASH AS A SAND REPLACEMENT IN CONCRETE

CHAPTER-1
1.0 INTRODUCTION

Concrete, the second mostly used engineering material in the world after water and
addition of some other materials may change the concrete properties. It is the
composite material most used for the construction of high rise buildings and
various Infrastructure developments area particularly in the developing countries
like India is more. Concrete is a form of mixing cement, fine and coarse aggregate
in addition to water. In general, the fine aggregate used in the production of
concrete was Natural River sand. Now days, these natural sources like river sand
are exhausting gradually around the world. So, the protection of environment and
saving of natural resources the construction industry is look for the alternative
constituent material for making concrete. So, there is a need for Replacement of
sand. In India, major portion of electricity generated by burning of coal resulting
as formed as ash. The ash contents comes from the burning of coal has to be
disposed as either in dry state or in wet state to available open areas nearer the
plant or both the bottom ash and bottom ash grounding and mixing with water and
send into lagoons. These are open to atmosphere causes environmental pollution
and loss of productive land. Bottom ash is obtaining from bottom of the furnace
with burning coal at thermal power plants. The use of bottom ash in high strength
concrete is a new dimension in concrete mix design. The chemical composition of
bottom ash is similar to bottom ash but it contains more carbon quantity than
bottom ash. CBA is a coarser angular material having porous surface texture and
distributed the particle size nearly equal to the sand. It exhibits the engineering
properties like high shear strength and low compressibility that makes as used in
construction applications. It has not only a constructability benefits and also
proved to be an economical. So, Government should encourage the bottom ash
usage and its related products as a large amount of quantities for many civil
engineering construction purposes.The appearance and particle size distribution of
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coal bottom ash is similar to that of river sand and makes it attractive to be used as
fine aggregate in the production of concrete. The other advantage of using bottom-
ash is that it can be dust free, the sizes of bottom-ash can be controlled easily so
that it meets the required grading for the given construction. Bottom ash also
exhibits a relatively high permeability and grain size distribution that allows the
design engineer to use it in direct contact with impervious material.

1.1 Ash Production and its availability

Any country's economic & industrial growth depends on the availability of power.
In India also, coal is a major source of fuel for power generation. About 60%
power is produced using coal as fuel. Indian coal is having low calorific value
(3000-3500 K cal.) & very high ash content (30-45%) resulting in huge quantity of
ash is generated in the coal based thermal power stations. During 2005-06 about
112 million tonne of ash has been generated in 125
such power stations. With the present growth in
power sector, it is expected that ash generation will
reach to 175 million tonne per annum by 2012.

Any coal based thermal power station may have the

following four kinds of ash:

Fly Ash: This kind of ash is extracted from flue

gases through Electrostatic Precipitator in dry form.
This ash is fine material & possesses good pozzolanic property.

Bottom Ash: This kind of ash is collected in the bottom of boiler furnace. It is
comparatively coarse material and contains higher unburnt carbon. It Fly ash is
loaded in possesses zero or little pozzolanic property.

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Closed tanker Pond Ash: When fly ash and bottom ash or both mixed together
in any proportion with the large quantity of water to make it in slurry form and
deposited in ponds wherein water gets drained away. The deposited ash is called
as pond ash.

MoundAsh: Fly ash and bottom ash or both mixed in any proportion and
deposited in dry form in the shape of a mound is termed as mound ash.

As per the Bureau of Indian Standard IS: 3812 (Part-1) all these types of ash is
termed as Pulverized FuelAsh (PFA).

1.2 ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF BOTTOM ASH USE IN

CONCRETE

Use of bottom 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.
Manufacture of cement is high-energy intensive industry. In the manufacturing of
one tonne of cement, about 1 tonne of CO is emitted and goes to atmosphere.
Less requirement of cement means less emission of result in reduction in green
house gas emission. Due to low calorific value and high ash content in Indian
Coal, thermal power plants in India, are producing huge quantity of bottom ash.
This huge quantity is being stored / disposed off in ash pond areas. The ash ponds
acquire large areas of agricultural land. Use of bottom ash reduces area
requirement for pond, thus saving of good agricultural land.

1.3NEED FOR THE USE OF COAL ASH IN CONSTRUCTION

Energy is the main backbone of modern civilization of the world over, and the
electric power from thermal power stations is a dominant source of energy, in
the order of electricity. In India, over 70% of electricity generated is by

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combustion of fossil fuels, out of which approximately 61% is contrived by

coal-fired plants. This results in the origination of around 100 ton of ash. Most
of the ash has to be disposed of either dry, or wet to an open area serviceable
near the plant or by grounding
both the bottom ash and bottom ash and mixing it with suitable amount of
water and pumping into artificial lagoon or dumping yards this brings out the
pollution in water bodies and ruin of productive land. The untiring slackening
of natural resources and the environmental imperils posed by the disposal of
coal ash has approached appalling proportion such that the use of coal ash in
manufacturing of concrete is imperative than a desire.

1.4 Factor Affecting the Utilization of Coal ash

Some of the factors due to which, utilization of coal ash is not increasing at
desired rate are:

 Lack of awareness of coal ash properties.

 High transportation cost.
 Non-availability of dry bottom ash and bottom ash.
 Lack of proper co-ordination.
 Easy availability of top soil.
 Variations in the quality of coal ash.

1.5 Application of Bottom ash in major areas

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Ash has been investigated for its suitability for utilization in major areas as
building material and other civil engineering sectors. The areas mentioned below
have tremendous scope of large scale use of Bottom ash.
 Building bricks and block.
 Road construction, Drainage media and Sound insulating walls.
 It is used in mining mortar in such application as rock stabilization or filling
of cavities.
 It is used as a construction material for highway and pavement.
 It is used for pressure grouting in concrete highways and for other purposes
viz, tunnel lining.
 It is used as mineral filler in asphalt roads to minimize void content and
increase the stability of bituminous wearing course during road
construction.
 It is used as a light weight synthetic aggregate in block and concrete.
 It is used along with bottom ash as a growing media for plants.
 In concrete, bottom ash is used as replacement of fine aggregate in which
concrete has advantageous properties like improved workability, resistance
to chemical attack.

2.0 How bottom ash helps in concrete?

2.1 Reduced Heat of Hydration

In concrete mix, when water and cement come in contact, a chemical reaction
initiates that produces binding material and consolidates the concrete mass.

The process is exothermic and heat is released which increases the temperature of
the mass When bottom ash is present in the concrete mass, it plays dual role for
the. strength development. Bottom ash reacts with released lime and produces

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binder as explained above and render additional strength to the concrete mass.
The unreactive portion of bottom ash act as micro aggregates and fills up the
matrix to render packing effect and results in increased strength.

The large temperature rise of concrete mass exerts temperature stresses and can
lead micro cracks. When bottom ash is used as part of cementitious material,
quantum of heat liberated is low and staggers through pozzolanic reactions and
thus reduces micro-cracking and improves soundness of concrete mass.

2.2 Workability of Concrete

Bottom ash particles are generally spherical in shape and reduces the water
requirement for a given slump. The spherical shape helps to reduce friction
between aggregates and between concrete and pump line and thus increases
workability and improve pumpability of concrete. Bottom ash use in concrete
increases fines volume and decreases water content and thus reduces bleeding of
concrete.

2.3 Permeability and corrosion protection

Water is essential constituent of concrete preparation. When concrete is hardened,

part of the entrapped water in the concrete mass is consumed by cement
mineralogy for hydration. Some part of entrapped water evaporates, thus leaving
porous channel to the extent of volume occupied by the water. Some part of this
porous volume is filled by the hydrated products of the cement paste. The
remaining part of the voids consists capillary voids and give way for ingress of
water. Similarly, the liberated lime by hydration of cement is water-soluble and is
leached out from hardened concrete mass, leaving capillary voids for the ingress
of water. Higher the water cement ratio, higher will be the porosity and thus

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higher will be the permeability. The permeability makes the ingress of moisture
and air easy and is the cause for corrosion of reinforcement. Higher permeability
facilitate ingress of chloride ions into concrete and is the main cause for initiation
of chloride induced corrosion.

Additional cementitious material results from reaction between liberated surplus

lime and bottom ash, blocks these capillary voids and also reduces the risk of
leaching of surplus free lime and thereby reduces permeability of concrete.

2.4 Effect of bottom ash on Carbonation of Concrete

Carbonation phenomenon in concrete occurs when calcium hydroxides (lime) of

the hydrated Portland Cement react with carbon dioxide from atmospheres in the
presence of moisture and form calcium carbonate. To a small extent, calcium
carbonate is also formed when calcium silicate and aluminates of the hydrated
Portland cement react with carbon dioxide from atmosphere. Carbonation process

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in concrete results in two deleterious effects (i) shrinkage may occur (ii) concrete
immediately adjacent to steel reinforcement may reduce its resistance to
corrosion. The rate of carbonation depends on permeability of concrete, quantity
of surplus lime and environmental conditions such as moisture and temperature.
When bottom ash is available in concrete; it reduces availability of surplus lime
by way of pozzolanic reaction, reduces permeability and as a result improves
resistance of concrete against carbonation phenomenon.

2.5 Sulphate Attack

Sulphate attacks in concrete occur due to reaction between sulphate from external
origins or from atmosphere with surplus lime leads to formation of etrringite,
which causes expansion and results in volume destabilization of the concrete.
Increase in sulphate resistance of bottom ash concrete is due to continuous
reaction between bottom ash and leached out lime, which continue to form
additional C-S-H gel. This C-S-H gel fills in capillary pores in the cement paste,
reducing permeability and ingress of sulphate ions.

2.6 Corrosion of steel

Corrosion of steel takes place mainly because of two types of attack. One is due
to carbonation attack and other is due to chloride attack. In the carbonation
attack, due to carbonation of free lime, alkaline environment in the concrete
comes down which disturbs the passive iron oxide film on the reinforcement.
When the concrete is permeable, the ingress of moisture and oxygen infuse to the
surface of steel initiates the electrochemical process and as a result-rust is
formed. The transformation of steel to rust increases its volume thus resulting in
the concrete expansion, cracking and distress to the structure.

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In the chloride attack, Chloride ion becomes available in the concrete either
through the dissociation of chlorides-associated mineralogical hydration or
infusion of chloride ion. The sulphate attack in the concrete decomposes the
chloride mineralogy thereby releasing chloride ion. In the presence of large
amount of chloride, the concrete exhibits the tendency to hold moisture. In the
presence of moisture and oxygen, the resistivity of the concrete weakens and
becomes more permeable thereby inducing further distress. The use of bottom
ash reduces availability of free limes and permeability thus result in corrosion
prevention.

2.7 Reduced alkali-aggregate reaction

Certain types of aggregates react with available alkalis and cause expansion and
damage to concrete. These aggregates are termed as reactive aggregates. It has
been established that use of adequate quantity of bottom ash in concrete reduces
the amount of alkali aggregate reaction and reduces/ eliminates harmful
expansion of concrete. The reaction between the siliceous glass in bottom ash and
the alkali hydroxide of Portland cement paste consumes alkalis thereby reduces
their availability for expansive reaction with reactive silica aggregates.

3.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

P.Ranapratap et al (2016) studied on the effect of replacing fine aggregate

with bottom ash in M40 grade of concrete with OPC-53s cement. In India there
is a growing concern about scarcity of river sand which is a prime source of
material used in the manufacture of cement concrete. In this context, this study
establish the experimental results about strength and economic aspects of
concrete, by partial sand replacement with bottom ash in the concrete. Also
experimental results presented about the partial replacement of crusher dust
and robo sand with bottom ash, as these products are treated as an alternative

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measures of natural sand. The aim of this project work is to efficient utilization
of Industrial wastes for high strength and durable concrete mix. Experimental
studies are conducted on M40 grade concrete prepared with 53 Grade special
cement and replacement fine aggregate with bottom ash. The investigation on
compressive strength of the concrete at different ages such as 7 days, 14 days
and 28 days are observed when the bottom ash is replaced 0%, 10%, 20%,
30%, 40%, 50%, and 60% in the place of three control mixes of sand, robo
sand and crusher dust which are treated as fine aggregate. The results showed
that the optimum dosage of bottom ash when it is replaced with sand/ robo
sand /crusher dust is 10% at 28days compressive strength of concrete. OPC 53
Grade special cement is selected for the purpose of attaining high early
strength of concrete.

Abhishek Sachdeva et al (2016) studied the Effect of cement and fine

aggregate replacement with Alccofine and Bottom ash on mechanical
properties of concrete. The study is planned to study the properties of concrete
at fresh and hardened stage containing both Alccofine as a partial replacement
of cement as well as coal bottom ash as a partial replacement of fine
aggregates in concrete together in different combinations. An experimental
programme is planned in which controlled concrete (MB1 mix) of grade M40
is designed, casted and tested for compressive strength after 28days of curing.
Three different mixes were prepared containing 20% (MB2 mix), 30% (MB3
mix) and 40% (MB4 mix) bottom ash as partial replacement of fine aggregates.
From the workability and compressive strength test results, it was observed
that both the workability and compressive strength reduced much for MB4
mix. Therefore, to study the effect of Alccofine as a partial replacement of
cement, MB4 mix was selected. The cement was partially replaced by
Alccofine by 5% (MB4AL5 mix), 10% (MB4AL10 mix), 15% (MB4AL15

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mix) and 20% (MB4AL20 mix) along with the 40% bottom ash as a partial
replacement of fine aggregate. Based on the analysis of test results, a reduction
in workability and strength was observed by partially replacing fine aggregates
with coal bottom ash. Workability, compressive strength and flexural strength
improved in the concrete mix containing bottom ash as a partial replacement of
fine aggregates along with the incorporation of Alccofine as a partial
replacement of cement in concrete. The workability is decreased with the
increase in the replacement level of fine aggregates with bottom ash but
workability improved on partially replacing cement with alccofine upto 15% in
the mix already containing bottom ash as a partial replacement of fine
aggregates, after which it decreased. A high strength concrete was developed
by using Alccofine as a partial replacement to cement along with the partial
replacement of fine aggregates with bottom ash.

Pardeep G et al (2016) reviewed the BOTTOM ASH AS A PARTIAL

REPLACEMENT OF FINE AGGREGATE IN ADDITION WITH PPF. In
this study fine aggregate in concrete mix has been replaced with bottom ash
and Polypropylene fibre is additionally used to enhance the strength
characteristics of concrete. The concrete mix design is done for M25 grade
concrete. The mix is prepared for different combinations of 0%, 10%, 20% and
30% of replacement of sand by bottom ash with 0.5% of polypropylene fibre
by total weight of the Cube. The mechanical properties were compared with
control mix and it was found that the optimal combination as 30% bottom ash
and 1.0% polypropylene fibre. Flexural strength was compared by testing
beams of size 1.5 x 0.25 x 0.15m under two point loading. Results showed that
there was no degradation of strength for beams with bottom ash as replacement
for fine aggregates

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M.Brindha et al (2016) studied the Durability of Cement Mortar Replaced by

Bottom Ash and Green Sand as a Fine Aggregate. The main purpose of this
paper is to study the durability of cement mortar by using the bottom ash and
the green sand to replace natural fine aggregate in the cement mortar products.
In this study use high water cement ratio to conduct the experiment, in which
the weight ratio of water/cement is 0.55 with the Superplastizers 2.5%. The
experiment uses bottom ash fine aggregates, which passes through 4.75mm
sieve, and natural sand of the same size as the aggregate. The study shows that,
based on the 1:3 cement/aggregate weight ratio while the bottom ash and the
green sand is to be varied in proportion 10%, 20%, 30% by its weight of
natural fine aggregates in cement mortar. Mortar compressive strength, split
tensile strength, porosity, water absorption studies will be carried out and the
best combination is to be selected based on the mortar strength.

Ahmad Farhan Hamzah et al (2015) studied on Fresh Characteristic and

Mechanical Compressive Strength Development of Self-Compacting Concrete
Integrating Coal Bottom Ash as Partial Fine Aggregates Replacement. This
paper presents the experimental works to study the effect of use of coal bottom
ash as a partial replacement of fine aggregates in self-compacing concrete
(SCC). The compressive strength properties studied instead of fresh
characteristic of mixtures. The SCC mixtures were produced by three different
water cement ratios (0.35, 0.40 and 0.45) and coal bottom ash as a replacement
of fine aggregates in varying percentages of 0%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and
30%. The fresh properties were investigated by slump flow, T500 spread time,
sieve segregation and L-box test in order to evaluate its self-compatibility. It
can be concluding that the filling and passing ability of SCC mixture decreased
when the amount of coal bottom ash content increased. The compressive
strength development for various percentages replacement of fine aggregates

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with coal bottom ash was conducted at 28, 90 and 180 days. It is clearly
noticeable the progress of compressive strength on intensification of water
cement ratio at different curing ages. The increase of water cement ratio
decreased the compressive strength for all percentages of coal bottom ash at all
ages

Aswathy P.U et al (2015) studied on the Behaviour of Self Compacting

Concrete by Partial Replacement of Fine Aggregate with Coal Bottom Ash.
This study presents the experimental investigation carried out to study the
behavior of self-compacting concrete incorporating coal bottom ash at different
replacement level of fine aggregate. To find the optimum replacement level the
replacement levels of coal bottom ash to fine aggregate is set up from 5 - 30%
at 5% increment. Then the optimum mix was subjected to variations
(increment and decrement in coal bottom ash in optimum mix). The fresh and
hardened properties such as compressive strength, split tensile strength,
flexural strength and modulus of elasticity of the concrete at the age of 28 days
of curing were conducted for all the variations. Results shows that the strength
of the concrete with coal bottom ash increased up to replacement level of
10%.This show that bottom ash are used as supplementary cementitious
materials, having the pozzolanic reactivity.

CONCLUSION

Based on the work of various researchers it was seen that bottom ash can be a
suitable material for replacement of concrete mix. Following conclusions can
be drawn. The compressive strength for 7, 28, 56 and 90 days was increased up
to 15-20% replacement and after that compressive strengths were decreased for
further more replacement. A marginal decrease was observed in the flexural
strength upto 15-20% replacement level. A decrease in strength of concrete
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with the increase in levels of fine aggregate replacement by coal bottom ash is
due to the replacement of the stronger material with the weaker material.
Splitting tensile strength of concrete improved on use bottom ash as fine
aggregate in partial replacement of sand. Workability of concrete decreases
with the increase in percentage of Bottom ash, as it is more porous, therefore
absorb more water than sand hence some super plasticizer can be used in
increasing dose as percentage of bottom ash is increased. The densities of
hardened concrete linearly decreased as the replacement ratio of ash was
increased from 10% to 100% as compared to standard concrete.

REFERENCES

1. P.Ranapratap1, K.Padmanabham2, “EFFECT OF REPLACING FINE

AGGREGATE WITH BOTTOM ASH IN M40 GRADE OF
CONCRETE WITH OPC-53S CEMENT”, 2016.

2. Pradeep G, “BRIEF REVIEW ON BOTTOM ASH AS A PARTIAL

REPLACEMENT OF FINE AGGREGATE IN ADDITION WITH
PPF” 2016.

3. M.Brindha1, N.Sakthieswaran2, “Durability Study of Cement Mortar

Replaced ByBottom Ash and Green Sand as a Fine Aggregate”2016

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4. 1Abhishek Sachdeva, 2Gobind Khurana, “Strength Evaluation of

Cement Concrete Using Bottom Ash as a Partial Replacement of Fine
Aggregates “2016

5. Aswathy P.U, “Behaviour of Self Compacting Concrete by Partial

Replacement of Fine Aggregate with Coal Bottom Ash” 2016

6. Gagandeep ,K shipra Gupta, “BOTTOM ASH AS PARTIAL SAND

REPLACEMENT IN CONCRETE” March-April 2017

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