Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 37683772

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Construction and Building Materials

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Effect of rice husk ash on the strength and durability characteristics of concrete
Hwang Chao-Lung , Bui Le Anh-Tuan, Chen Chun-Tsun
Department of Construction Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, 43, Keelung Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei 106, Taiwan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This work investigates the effects of adding residual rice husk ash (RHA) from South Vietnam, generated
Received 23 December 2010 when burning rice husk pellets in the boiler, to cement. To improve pozzolanic reactivity, RHA was
Received in revised form 14 March 2011 ground for 1 h. The non-ground RHA and ground RHA were used to test strength activity index according
Accepted 11 April 2011
to ASTM C311. The properties of the concrete were investigated, including compressive strength, concrete
Available online 4 May 2011
electrical resistivity, and ultrasonic pulse velocity. Results show that the non-ground RHA can be applied
as a pozzolanic material. Decreasing the non-ground RHA average particle size provides a positive effect
Keywords:
on the compressive strength of mortar. Compressive strength of cylindrical concrete in the 4766 MPa
Rice husk ash (RHA)
Concrete
range was obtained in this study. The results also indicate that up to 20% of ground RHA could be advan-
Compressive strength tageously blended with cement without adversely affecting the strength and durability properties of
Durability concrete.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction of the particles, the grinding of RHA to a high degree of neness

Vietnam is one of the largest exporters of rice in the world, pro-
ducing large volumes of husk in a three-season year. The Mekong
Delta region alone produces 3.6 million tons of rice husks a year.
Because of the high energy capacity of rice husk (about
3200 kcal/kg, two barrels of oil by rice husk ton) [1,2] a large
amount of rice husk has been used as bio fuel to power boilers, pro-
ducing steam for drying and the parboiling process. In the future,
rice husk from the Delta will be used to fuel thermoelectric plants.
The rice husk has a large dry volume due to its low bulk density
(90150 kg/m3) [3]. To save storage space and transport rice husk
economically, most rice husk was made into pellets as shown in
Fig. 1. However, residual RHA, generated when burning rice husk
pellets, should be considered for its environmental effects.
For several decades, the use of RHA as a highly reactive pozzo-
lanic material in concrete production has been researched, espe-
cially in developing countries. The ash properties vary due to the
differences in incinerating conditions, rate of heating, geographic
location, and neness [1,46]. Highly reactive RHA is obtained
when RHA is burnt under controlled conditions. This RHA contains
a high silica content in the form of non-crystalline or amorphous
silica of up to 95% [7]. The reactivity is attributed to the high con-
tent of amorphous silica, and to the very large surface area gov-
erned by the porous structure of the particles. Generally, the
reactivity is also favored by increasing the neness of the RHA
[4,5,8,9]. However, Mehta [10] has considered that since RHAs
pozzolanic activity derives mainly from the internal surface area
Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 2 27353950; fax: +886 2 27354893.
E-mail address: cmrl@seed.net.tw (H. Chao-Lung).
should be avoided. Hwang and Chandra [3] have suggested that
the particle size of RHA in the 1075 lm range exhibits satisfactory
pozzolanic behavior.
In other conditions, a residual RHA is produced with a lower
quality due to high carbon content. The high carbon content leads
to an increase in water demand and produces a darker color in
mortar and concrete. However, the ller effect has been demon-
strated as being even more pronounced than the pozzolanic effect
[11]. Therefore, by grinding up to an appropriate particle size, the
pozzolanic reactivity of residual RHA can be improved, reducing
the adverse effect of the high carbon content in the ash, and
increasing the homogeneity of the material, but the process means
a considerable cost [1,6,12]. The optimized RHA, by controlled burn
and/or grinding, has been used as a pozzolanic material in cement
and concrete. Using it provides several advantages, such as im-
proved strength and durability properties, and environmental ben-
ets related to the disposal of waste materials and to reduced
carbon dioxide emissions [1,8,13,14].
Up to now, little research has been done to investigate the use
of RHA as supplementary material in cement and concrete produc-
tion in Vietnam. For example, in 2005 Bui et al. [8] published a pa-
per in which they burnt Vietnam rice husk in a drum incinerator
for RHA production and researched the particle-size effect on the
strength of RHA blended gap-graded Portland cement concrete.
For this reason, this study investigates the strength activity index
of mortars containing residual RHA that is generated when burning
rice husk pellets and RHA as received after grinding residual RHA.
The effect of partial replacement of cement with different percent-
ages of ground RHA on the compressive strength and durability of
concrete is examined.

0950-0618/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2011.04.009
 H. Chao-Lung et al. / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 37683772
2. Materials and experimental methods
2.1. RHA characteristics
The residual RHA as shown in Fig. 2 was collected at Saigon Ve Wong Co., Ltd., Ho
Chi Minh city, Vietnam. Rice husk pellets (Fig. 1) were burnt in a steam boiler at tem-
peratures varying from 600 to 800 C. Fig. 3 provides the X-ray power diffraction
(XRD) pattern of RHA. As can be seen, RHA is mostly amorphous silica and partially
crystalline silica. It can be seen from Fig. 4 that RHA has a porous cellular structure
and consists of irregular-shaped particles. Average particle size of RHA is 87 lm in
diameter, as was measured using Mastersizer 2000. To increase the nesses, RHA
was ground by a ball mill for 1 h. By this way, the average particle size of RHA can
be decreased to 12 lm as shown in Fig. 5. Rukzon et al. [5] concluded that the differ-
ences in chemical composition of RHA with different nenesses from the same batch
are small. Therefore, chemical analysis was performed on the ground RHA. The
chemical composition of RHA was presented in Table 1. High value of silica content
and loss on ignition (presented the amount of residual carbon) can be observed.
In order to assess the pozzolanic reactivity of the ashes, strength activity index
test was prepared according to ASTM C311 [15]. The results show that the water
requirements of the mortars with non-ground RHA and ground RHA added are
117% and 110%, respectively. The decrease in the particle size of RHA decreases
the water demand of the mixture. Similar approach was also reported by some
investigations [5,16]. The compressive strength of the mortar containing non-
ground RHA is lower than that of the control mortar (OPC) at all ages. At 28 days,
the compressive strength of non-ground RHA is 72% of that of the OPC mortar at
the same age. The compressive strength of the non-ground RHA might be able to in-
crease after 28 days. This is because of the low pozzolanic reaction of RHA [4,17].
According to ASTM C618 [18], y ash and natural pozzolans should have a strength
activity index of at least 75% of the control mortar at the age of 28 days when they
are used as mineral admixture to replace Portland cement at the rate of 20% by
weight of binder. Therefore, the non-ground RHA can be used as a pozzolanic mate-
rial in concrete. In general, the pozzolanic effect depends not only on the pozzolanic
reaction but also on the physical or ller effect of the smaller particles in the mixture
[11]. Hence, one of the most common methods for improving the pozzolanic activity
of mineral admixtures is to decrease their particle size. The ner particles of pozzo-
lans had a greater pozzolanic reaction and the smaller particles could also ll in the
voids of the sample, thus the compressive strength of mortar could be improved
[4,5,8,9,11]. This is obvious in the ground RHA case. A high strength reactivity index
was achieved using RHA that was ground for 60 min. The compressive strength of
Fig. 1. Rice husk pellets.
Fig. 2. Residual RHA after burning rice husk pellets.
3769
ground RHA mortar at the age of 7 and 28 days is 82% and 97% of that of the OPC mor-
tar at the same age, respectively. These indexes are 32% and 35% higher than those of
non-ground RHA at 7 and 28 days, respectively. On the other hand, to develop poz-
zolanic activity in the presence of lime or Portland cement, the RHA particles need
not to be very ne. This is because the source of high surface area in RHA is in the
microporous structure of individual particles. RHA particles, in the 1075 lm range,
exhibit satisfactory pozzolanic behavior [3,10].
2.2. Materials used in concretes
In the type I Portland cement produced by Taiwan Cement Company. The phys-
ical and chemical characteristics of Portland cement are given in Table 1. Crushed
coarse aggregate (19 mm maximum size, density 2.67 and absorption capacity
1.4%) and natural sand (modulus of neness 3.0, density 2.65 and absorption capac-
ity 1.2%) were provided from local quarries. The mixing water was local tap water.
Type-G superplasticizer, having 43% solid content with specic gravity of 1.18, was
used to achieve the desired workability for all concrete mixtures. All materials con-
form to the related ASTM standards.
2.3. Testing program
The ground RHA was used as a pozzolanic material in concrete. The concrete
was tested for compressive strength and durability properties. Mixture proportions
of concrete were based on the ACI 211.1 [19]. Three water-to-binder ratios (w/b):
0.23; 0.35; and 0.47; with the same 10% RHA replacement by weight of cement,
were done in this investigation. In order to assess the effect of RHA replacements
on concrete properties, w/b ratio of 0.35 were selected. The mixtures were prepared
by replacing 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% of cement with RHA. Table 2 shows the mixture
proportions in weight of materials. The slump of concrete was measured according
to ASTM C143 [20]. The slump of concrete was controlled in the 80100 mm range.
The preparation of concrete specimens for cylinder compressive strength, concrete
electrical resistivity, and the ultrasonic pulse velocity test follow ASTM C192 [21],
and those specimens were cured in saturated limewater at the temperature of
23 2.0 C. According to ASTM C39 [22], the concrete cylinders with dimension of
/ 100  200 mm were tested for compressive strength. A concrete electrical resis-
tivity meter manufactured by the CNS Company in UK is used in this study for con-
ducting the concrete electrical resistivity test to measure the concrete electrical
resistivity under saturated condition. The ultrasonic pulse velocity test was con-
ducted according to ASTM-597 [23]. The tests for hardened concrete were carried
out at the age of 1, 3, 7, 14, 28, 56 and 91 days.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Workability of concrete
The amount of SP requirement of mixtures for achieving a de-
sired slump in the range of (80100 mm) is shown in Table 2. To
attain the desired slump, the concretes containing RHA required
higher water content than those containing only Portland cement.
This is due to the high specic surface area and high carbon con-
tent of RHA [1,12]. Therefore, the SP content of RHA concrete mix-
tures is higher than that of the control mixture. The SP content
increases along with the RHA percentage.
3.2. Compressive strength of concrete
Compressive strength is usually considered as one of the most
important properties of concrete and a major indicator of general
quality control. Factors inuencing the strength of concrete include
the types and quality of materials, the mixture proportion, the con-
struction methods, the curing condition, and the test method. From
the microscopic point of view, both the degree of hydration and the
porosity play important roles. The greater the volume of the pores,
the lower the strength of the concrete will be. In addition, with
decreasing binder/space ratio (dened as the ratio of the content
of CSH gel to the original volume of space), the strength will be-
come greater. This is evident in Table 3, which shows the relation-
ship between testing age and compressive strength of concrete
with various ground RHA content at the same and different w/b ra-
tios. In the early phase, the addition of ground RHA reduces the
amount of cement by 1020%, the volume of capillary pores then in-
creases, accumulating CH on the interface. As a result, the structure
3770 H. Chao-Lung et al. / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 37683772
Fig. 3. XRD diagram of non-ground RHA.
Fig. 4. SEM image of non-ground RHA.
Fig. 5. SEM image of ground RHA.
is less compact, causing the strength to be lower than that of the
specimen without ground RHA added. After 28 days, pozzolanic
reaction starts to proceed, decreasing the amount of CH and improv-
ing the densication [24]. Consequently, the compressive strength is
enhanced in the later phase. Comparison of the data for 56 and
91 days of curing ages shows that the compressive strength of con-
cretes with up to 20% ground RHA attain values equivalent to that
control concrete specimens. With water-to-binder ratio from 0.23
to 0.47, compressive strength at 28 days of RHA concrete in the
4766 MPa range is obtained in this investigation.
3.3. Electrical resistance of concrete
The measurement of concrete electrical resistivity gives an indi-
cation of durability of concrete. The conduction of ions of the
hydration solution in the pores causes corrosion. With denser con-
crete and lower w/b ratio, the electrical resistance will increase.
According to Hope and Ip [25], the minimum value beyond which
corrosion cannot occur is 8.5 kX-cm, while Buenfeld and Newman
[26] recommend a value of 20 kX-cm, which corresponds to the
special specication of HPC. As seen in Table 4, for ground RHA
concrete specimens of denser mixture proportion and lower w/b
ratio, the electrical resistivity of concrete measured after 28 days
of curing are all higher than the suggested 20 kX-cm. In other
words, the higher the electrical resistance, the greater the corro-
sion endurance will be. In this study, the pozzolanic reaction due
to the addition of ground RHA reduces the volume of capillary
pores and enhances the impermeability of concrete. The electrical
resistance will grow with the concrete age through pozzolanic
reaction of ground RHA. So, its pozzolanic reaction is not expected
to be signicant in early age and the electrical resistance is low. As
seen in Table 4, after 14 days, the electrical resistance of the con-
cretes with ground RHA added rises sharply. This indicates the ef-
fects of solidication brought by pozzolanic reaction can indeed
increase the electrical resistance of concrete.
3.4. Ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV)
The pulse velocity methods have been used to assess the unifor-
mity and relative quality of concrete, to indicate the presence of
voids and cracks, and to evaluate the effectiveness of crack repairs
[23]. Generally, high pulse velocity reading in concrete is indicative
of concrete of good quality. Malhotra [27] has suggested that con-
crete has good durability when its pulse velocity value is in the
range of 36604575 m/s. Table 5 illustrates the effect of water-to-
binder ratio on UPV of ground RHA concrete. The trend with regard
to the hardening properties of ground RHA concrete is: the lower
the w/b ratio the higher the UPV [28,29]. During the hydration per-
iod, the volume of the solid/liquid phase with the high water-to-
binder ratio is smaller and the distance between grains is a little
greater. At the same time, it takes a longer time to ll pore space
with hydrates of low cement content than of high cement content.
Table 5 also shows that the effect of ground RHA content on UPV
in concrete is to cure with age. An increase in ground RHA content
tends to lower the UPV curve. In the long run, the addition of ground
RHA up to 20% will nally reach the same UPV values as in the con-
 H. Chao-Lung et al. / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 37683772 3771

Table 1 [30]. Such an occurrence may be explained by the fact that the
Physical and chemical analysis of cement and RHA. control concrete contains greater quantities of cement than does
Item Cement Ground RHA RHA cement paste and has higher hydrate content at the same age.
Physical properties Specic gravity 3.15 2.06 On the other hand, due to the much more porous structure and lower
specic gravity of RHA particles compared to the cement, the grains
Chemical compositions (%)
SiO2 22.01 91 of RHA are not as dense as those of cement. However, at 28 days, UPV
Al2O3 5.51 0.35 of all specimens is higher than 3660 m/s, therefore, the specimens
Fe2O3 3.44 0.41 might be considered to be durable concrete [27].
MgO 2.59 0.81
SO3 2.03 1.21
P2O5 0.05 0.98 3.5. Strength efciency of cement
Na2O 0.40 0.08
K2O 0.70 3.21 The strength efciency of cement implies the yielded strength
Loss on ignition (%) 0.51 8.5
per kilogram of cement and is denoted as MPa/kg cement. Fig. 6
shows that the higher amount of ground RHA content, the higher

Table 2
Mixture proportions of concrete.

Mix no. w/b w/c Mix proportion (kg/m3)

Coarse aggregate Sand Cement Ground RHA Water SP
A23-10 0.23 0.26 933 344 783 87 212 3.6
A35-00 0.35 0.35 933 633 571 0 219 1.0
A35-10 0.35 0.39 933 608 514 57 218 1.4
A35-20 0.35 0.44 933 582 457 114 216 2.6
A35-30 0.35 0.50 933 557 400 171 215 3.7
A47-10 0.47 0.52 933 737 383 42 221 0.3

Remark: 1. Mix no: Ab-c, b is w/b ratio; c is RHA content (%) by mass of cement, respectively. 2. Mix no: A represents the ACI 211.1 standard practice for selecting proportion
for concrete. 3. w/c: water-to-cement ratio.

Table 3
Strength development of RHA concrete.

Mix w/b ratio RHA content (%) Compressive strength (MPa)

1 day 3 days 7 days 14 days 28 days 56 days 91 days
A23-10 0.23 10 41 59 62 63 66 69 74
A35-00 0.35 0 30 46 50 54 56 60 67
A35-10 0.35 10 27 41 47 52 61 62 67
A35-20 0.35 20 26 38 47 52 60 61 69
A35-30 0.35 30 19 32 43 51 54 60 64
A47-10 0.47 10 16 26 37 40 47 51 56

Table 4
Development of electrical resistivity of RHA concrete.

Mix w/b ratio RHA content (%) Electrical resistivity (kX-cm)

1 day 3 days 7 days 14 days 28 days 56 days 91 days
A23-10 0.23 10 4.6 8.3 12.1 15.2 21.3 36.3 37.5
A35-00 0.35 0 6.7 8.1 11.7 12.6 14.1 20.3 22.9
A35-10 0.35 10 5.9 7.6 11.4 14.3 19.6 37.9 40.9
A35-20 0.35 20 4.4 6.0 10.2 17.6 30.4 58.1 64.1
A35-30 0.35 30 3.7 5.2 11.3 24.4 38.1 65.9 69.1
A47-10 0.47 10 3.3 4.9 7.3 8.4 12.0 24.5 28.5

Table 5
Development of ultrasonic pulse velocity of RHA concrete.

Mix w/b ratio RHA content (%) Ultrasonic pulse velocity (m/s)
1 day 3 days 7 days 14 days 28 days 56 days 91 days
A23-10 0.23 10 4205 4323 4525 4579 4606 4662 4788
A35-00 0.35 0 4121 4264 4443 4463 4515 4599 4642
A35-10 0.35 10 4146 4265 4436 4456 4530 4599 4637
A35-20 0.35 20 4086 4165 4361 4381 4446 4493 4611
A35-30 0.35 30 4047 4147 4342 4372 4417 4457 4611
A47-10 0.47 10 3795 4059 4237 4332 4452 4541 4579

trol concrete. Measurement shows that UPV continues to grow the strength efciency of cement. The 91-day strength efciency
when less cement is used, if more cement is used the UPV decreases of cement rises to 0.13, 0.15 and 0.16 MPa/kg/m3 corresponding
3772 H. Chao-Lung et al. / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 37683772
Fig. 6. Effect of RHA content on strength efciency of cement.
to the ground RHA concrete with percentage replacement of ash of
10%, 20% and 30%, respectively. The 91-day value is 1.21.5 times
higher than that of the control concrete (0.11 MPa/kg/m3). Such re-
sult indicates that the cement consumption is only about one quar-
ter of the normal usage based on the same compressive strength. In
such manner, the cement consumption, the energy consumption
and the detrimental CO2 emission for the environment during
the production of cement can signicantly be reduced to environ-
mental advantage.
4. Conclusions
According to the results in this study, a number of conclusions
can be drawn.
1. The compressive strength of concretes with up to 20% ground
RHA added attain values equivalent to that control concrete
after 28 days. On the other hand, although ground RHA presents
high carbon content, the experiments in the current study
found that compressive strengths of the compounds and the
reference were similar after 28 days, which indicates a possible
use of the ground RHA as a partial Portland cement substitute.
2. After 91 days of curing, the electrical resistance of all RHA con-
crete becomes higher than 20 kX-cm. Similarly, for all RHA con-
crete samples, the UPV are all higher 3660 m/s after 91 days of
curing. The strength efciency of cement in ground RHA con-
crete is much higher than that of the control concrete.
The results prove that it is possible to obtain RHA concrete
with comparable or better properties than those of the control
specimen (without RHA) with a lower consumption of cement,
thus reducing the CO2 emissions during the production of cement.
Moreover, while the results will be able to substantiate the viabil-
ity of application of RHA in concrete industry under the prevailing
conditions in Vietnam, they are also expected to be especially
useful for future studies on RHA in a specic condition in this
country.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank the Ve Wong Corporation for RHA and the
nancial support that made this publication possible. We are
grateful to Professor Lee-Kuo Lin, Professor Ta-Wui Cheng and
other fellows of Hwangs research group for their assistance on this
subject to help nish this research.
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