Physiognomies and Strength Investigation of Concrete Part Blended by Wood Ash

Introduction: Cement during its manufacture emits enormous CO2, and heat to the atmosphere and deteriorate the environment affecting its sustainability. Wood ashes (WA) are the by-products wood based power plants, timber mills as wood dust, barks from forestry, paper industry, and forest fire are simple wastes and are noxious to atmosphere. Present study is investigating the strength and durability of concrete when blended with 0%, 10%, 30%, and 40% wood ash replacing cement to have these wastes effective waste management.

Methodology: The process of investigation is to find the chemical constituents of fly ash, and its suitability to part substitute cement by using X-ray fluorescent spectrometer (XRF), and digital compressive testing machine (CTM) and Universal Testing Machine (UTM) to verify the physical, chemical, and mechanical properties to assess appropriate strength of wood ash blended concrete (WABC).

Results: Strength characteristic at various proportion of mix of (WABC) on testing exhibited decreasing trend on increasing WA percent. The blended concrete exhibited the required compressive strength at 10% addition of WA and after curing for 28days. By utilizing wood ash as cement substitute the environment can be saved from black carbon and further deterioration.