Abstract

The quest to minimize the negative effects associated with the high use of natural resources in cement production used in construction industries has been on the increase for age-old. However, despite the environmental hazard, cement production is unaffected. In recent times, research work on the need to find locally available cement replacement material has been at its peak globally. This research presents a comprehensive work on the effect of partial replacement of cement with saw dust ash (SDA) blended with optimum (MHA) as admixture (ternary blend) to improve the strength properties of grade 40 self-compacting concrete (SCC). The SDA and MHA used were obtained at temperature between 600℃−650℃ and used at a varied mix proportion of 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30% respectively. To enhance the strength properties of SDA-SCC, optimum dose of MHA was incorporated to produce SDA-MHA-SCC. A number of trials mixed in accordance to standard specification were conducted to obtain grade 40 SCC with plasticizer at 6.24 kg/m3 and water to binder ratio of 0.37. The hardened properties were evaluated at 3, 7, 28, 56 and 90 days curing to study the effects of the SDA-SCC, MHA-SCC and the effects of optimum MHA-SCC in SDA – SCC. The investigation revealed compressive strength of 44.80N/mm2 and 40.10N/mm2 for MHA-SCC at 5% and 10%, and 41.60N/mm2 at 5% for SDA-SCC and SDA-MHA-SCC as compared to targeted strength of 40N/mm2 after 28 days.