Properties of fine-grained concrete containing fly ash and bottom ash

Abstract

In the present paper, large amounts of bottom ash (BA) and fly ash (FA) in a Vung Ang thermal power plant in Vietnam were used to substitute crushed sand (CS) to produce fine-grained concrete. The FA content was fixed at 20 %, the BA content increased from 20 % to 50 % corresponding to the CS content decreased from 60 % to 30 %. Four mixtures of fine-grained concrete were prepared to produce concrete. It was found that the compressive and splitting tensile strengths decreased when the amount of FA and BA increased from 40 % to 70 %. The compressive and the splitting tensile strengths were comparable to those in conventional concrete containing bottom ash. The larger content of bottom ash caused higher water absorption and resulted in lower chloride resistance, which is because of the porous structure of BA. Based on the results of chloride resistance, this fine-grained concrete is classified as moderately permeable concrete. The results of this study indicated that crushed sand (fine aggregate) of fine-grained concrete can be replaced by fly ash incorporated with bottom ash up to 60 % and this fine-grained concrete can be applied for construction works as conventional concrete.

Keywords

• fly ash
• bottom ash
• fine-grained concrete
• water absorption
• chloride penetration
• compressive strength
• splitting tensile strength